The Soul of Shinobi
by EvenNeptune
Summary: Fiore is a land filled with magic, wizards and guilds. It's not a place for shinobi who know nothing but hard times and war. However, Naruto and Sasuke are about to discover that the soul of a shinobi remains the same, no matter what. Slight AU (Only the geography is a little different)
1. X782

**A/N: What's up everybody? This story is about to progress pretty well if I do say so myself. I did some hardcore thinking and did some research in order to best adapt to the source material even if this story is slight AU. The only thing that really makes it AU is the geography of the continent, and even still it's not all that different. I also want a beta reader to help me with my grammar errors or anything that I could do better in my story. So anyone who wants to volunteer can just PM me. Anyway, enjoy! I hope...**

 **Chapter 1: X782**

In a land far, far away lies the Kingdom of Fiore, a small peaceful nation of 17 million, and a place filled with magic! Found in every home, bought and sold in every marketplace, for most, magic is merely a tool, a mundane part of everyday life. For some, however, magic is an art and they devoted their lives to its oractice. These are the wizards. Banded together into magical guilds they apply their skills in search of fame and fortune. Many such guilds dot the landscape of Fiore. But there is a certain guild in a certain town that soars high above the rest, one from which countless legends have been born… a guild that will no doubt continue to create legends well into the future. Its name… is _Fairy Tail._

…

The Magic Council, ERA, the ones who kept order in the magic world at all times. They were the glue that held all wizard guilds together. There were nine people standing on top of a large magic circle, while each individual person was standing on their own personal magic circle, discussing issues in the magic world as usual.

"Fairy Tail destroyed half of a town on their last job! They are getting out of hand!" said Leiji. He is a tall middle-aged man, who always wears small, round, dark shaded glasses. He wears a white and blue Magic Council cloak, always with the hood up. Leiji has large thin lips and tan skin. He has black hair and huge sideburns that almost hit his lips. On his chin are small chin hairs. Leiji also has small eyebrows that always point down, making him look angry and serious.

"I personally like Fairy Tail, they certainly make the world a lot less boring." said Siegrain, he dressed himself in elegant yet simple robes; consisting of a long white frock-coat with black stripes across the edges and on the upper part of the arms, a decorated standing collar, large straps connected to decorated buckles closing the inducement on the front over a dark shirt, and matching pants and shoes. He also sported a ring on his right middle finger, and had the medallion attesting his status as one of the Ten Wizard Saints around his neck, hidden by his jacket's collar.

"I have to agree, that guild is quite entertaining," said Ultear, a very voluptuous women with dark purple hair and red eyes. She was wearing a long revealing dress, sporting a striped pattern. Suddenly the earth started to rumble and a strange, humanoid toad-like creature burst through door of the council room shouting, "Emergency! Emergency!"

"What is it?!" asked short, frail looking old man asked. This man was Yajima, who held the 6th chair in the council.

"There's been a detection of overwhelming energy in the south! The threat level is Dragon!" warned the amphibious humanoid employee of the magic council. The entire head of the council went into disarray.

"We must investigate it immediately! Send out the closest men we have to investigate the source!" The council chairman ordered. Everyone there was stricken with numerous thoughts and emotions began to flurry.

"It's probably that damn guild again!" An elderly man who had various cat like features. From pointy ears, to a mustache that resembled whiskers, to even being in possession of a tail! This man's name was Michello.

"No, there's no way that guild could produce the threat level of a dragon. I'll check the Surveillence room and afterwards head towards the site." Siegrain said as his thought projection disappeared. Siegrain's real body was sitting behind a desk in what seemed like a small library. He walked out into the main lobby of the magic council and there were many of the same amphibian like people running around in a panic.

" _Jeez I wish they would calm down at least a little..._ " Siegrain thought as he maintained his cool demeanor and walked through the lobby until he came to a door that was labeled _Surveillance._ He opened the door and stepped through and was immediately greeted by a regular human.

"Sir Siegrain, this way please." he said as he led the former to a table with a whole bunch of different tools of measurement on it. There was a huge digital map on the wall behind the table and a blinking red dotwas present south of ERA, where the magic council was located. Each and every energy measuring device was completely maxed out. If the levels of energy they were detecting rose even the slightest it would probably shatter those devices into a million pieces.

"These readings are off the charts!" Siegrain exclaimed. His eyes widened in horror from reading the values. Suddenly a warning siren started to go off in the room, and the devices began to shatter one by one.

" _What could that possibly be coming from?!..."_

 **(At the sight of the energy source)**

There was a gigantic tower of searing sky blue light coming from within the mountains south of ERA. There was a small battalion of Rune Knights stationed near there, a head count of about 100 men. As they marched closer to the light source, the more and more pressure they began to feel on their knees. Some couldn't take it and just plain collapsed under the intensity of all that pressure. Not only dealing with the pressure of the energy, but the rumbling of the earth that was caused by it.

"Just what on earth could possibly be the source of this?!" The captain of the squadron asked in utter shock and awe. That tower of light cause the earth to rumble, and as they got closer to it, everyone's fears began to build up ever higher. Like bells ringing in a church, there were pangs in the heart of the captain. Then suddenly the tower of light began to expand, ripping apart the earth and destroying nearly everything that it touched. It consumed the soldiers, the ones who collapsed on the way there were the lucky ones. At this point it could be seen throughout the entire kingdom of Fiore. Every guild, every creature, everything stopped what they were doing and looked at the spectacle that was taking place. It was like a beacon, perhaps a warning symbol from the magic council. Some thought that two extremely powerful wizards were facing off in a battle to the death. Whatever it was it definitely caught the attention of all those who were able.

The light then began to recede to it's epicenter and the trembling subsided. All the knights that were there were all unconscious and bodies were littered everywhere. All except the captain, though he was struggling just to stay conscious for the time being. He lay there on the cold hard ground, inside the massive crater. Something stuck out to him, there was an arm, a human arm. Then there were two arms that came out of the epicenter. The dirt began crumbling away as two people crawled out from beneath the earth. They were two men, one with blonde hair, wearing an orange coat, matching orange pants and a black headband tied around his head. The other one had dark hair, his black cloak had a high collar and some black sandals. Their clothes were tattered and their bodies dusty. The captain couldn't grasp a good look at their face before falling unconscious.  
"Oooh man what the heck happened to me?" The blonde one asked aloud as he stumbled a bit. Once the two were about to gather themselves they scanned the area around them. They saw the bodies of the Rune Knights littered throughout the area like trash.  
"Hey are you okay?" The blonde one called out but no response was given to him.  
"Those clothes... They don't look like any from the five great nations." The Raven haired boy pointed out. None of them were moving, but they all showed signs of still being alive.  
"Still what the hell happened here?" Naruto asked as he clutched his in pain.  
"Sasuke we should go back to the village Sasuke groaned as he held his head in pain as well.  
"I don't think that's possible right now..." Sasuke said, his words trailing off just a bit.  
"What do you mean that's not possible?" Naruto asked.  
"There are people unconscious, in clothing we've never seen before. And the fact that geologically, we're not even in the same place we started." Sasuke explained but Naruto still looked confused. He sighed and continued, "The latest memory I have was us setting foot inside of a temple in the forest, no mountains and I'm sure your memory is similar to that." Sasuke said as he looked to see Naruto bobbing his head in agreement.  
"Look around you... This is clearly a mountainous region, and on top of that look at what we're standing in!" Sasuke said loudly. Naruto took a serious look around this time. This reminded him of his battle with Pain. There was nothing but a desolate wasteland for about a mile or so. The crater was also pretty deep too. Naruto was speechless about the situation. He looked once more at the several bodies spread across the area. He looked back at Sasuke, his eyes bring covered by his hair.  
"We should... Probably get out of here..." Sasuke suggested and Naruto agreed. The two shinobi left the scene, heading Northeast. Moving as fast as their stiff bodies could move. After a while of walking they managed to leave that area entirely and enter an actual forest.  
"The geography is similar, but these trees are slightly different than the ones that surround the Hidden Leaf." Sasuke pointed out, inspecting a fallen leaf as they stopped to take a break once they entered the forest.  
"If you're right and we are in some different place, where exactly are we?" Naruto asked.  
"Well we won't find out just sitting around." He said as they got up and began moving once more. After a few hours of dragging their heels they finally reached the outskirts of a town. It was a lively town, the market was bustling with people. There was so much chatter, Naruto and Sasuke could vaguely pick up on conversations from where they were.  
"This is definitely not the Leaf Village." Naruto said as they ventured deeper into town. They kept on hearing the same two words being mentioned over and over. "Fairy Tail?..." Naruto and Sasuke both thought as they looked at each other. Then Naruto went to go ask an old man who was selling these weird crystal balls.  
"Fairy Tail? Oh they're the wizard guild that occupy this town. They're a capable bunch but they always go a little too overboard." The old man said.  
"Tell us more about these wizards and guilds." Sasuke said and the elderly began to explain to them all the commonly known things about guilds and wizards.  
"If you two don't know about wizards or guilds, this is clearly your first time setting foot in this continent." He said.  
"That may very well be true." Sasuke said as he began to walk off. Naruto trailed behind him, thanking the old man for the information that they were given.  
"We should head to this Fairy Tail, they could have the information that we need." Sasuke said. They began heading towards the guild hall which was located on the edge of the town. Certainly they had a few eyes fall upon them due to the state of their clothing but that would only serve as a distraction right now. It only took them a few minutes to reach the guild hall. Naruto burst through the large wooden doors of the guild. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at the two that just burst in. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.  
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I need some help."

…

Siegrain and a few other members of the magic council showed up to the site where Naruto and Sasuke came out of. They looked at the massive crater in the ground and were completely awe struck. Siegrain hopped into the crater and began walking to its center. He saw the Rune Knights scattered about like trash and didn't even pay them any attention.

"Medical attention will see to them soon." He said aloud to himself. After a short while of walking, he had finally reached the center. He saw the hole in the ground that Naruto and Sasuke came out of and he looked deeper into it. He noticed something shining within arms reach inside of the hole. He got down to his knees and reached for the object. Grabbing hold of it, he pulled out his arm and inspected it. It was a shattered piece of crystal, with a japanese word written on it.

" _Six?"_ Siegrain thought. He looked back down into the hole to try and see if he could find anymore pieces of shattered crystal.

" _I'll have an archeological team come and dig this site out later once everything's calm down."_ Siegrain thought a with a mischievous smirk as he pocketed the crystal.


	2. Fairy Tail's New Editions

**Chapter 2: Fairy Tail's New Editions**

"Well my name is Makarov, and I'm Fairy Tail's current master. What can I help you with?" He asked. He's an extremely short, elderly man was sitting there. He has black eyes and is growing bald with only the outer rims of his head containing white hair. He also has a thick white mustache. His outfit consist of a white shirt with a black Fairy Tail stamp in the middle which was covered by an orange hoodie. His attire was completed with matching orange shorts and an orange and blue striped jester hat.  
"Well you see, my friend and I are lost and we have no idea where we are. So we were wondering if you could help us out." Naruto said and Makarov smiled.  
"Sure, we can try to help you. Where do you need to go?" Makarov asked.  
"The Hidden Leaf Village." Naruto said and Makarov happy expression shifted to one that was confused.  
"The Hidden Leaf Village? I've never heard of such a place. Is that a new guild or something?" Makarov said and Naruto was confused too.  
"Really? You've never heard of the Hidden Leaf? Man how are we going to get home now?" Naruto asked, truly disappointed in the results of his question.  
"We? I'm more or less just a wanderer. I don't live in the Leaf." Sasuke said sarcastically.  
"So what? You're just as lost as I am right now! Stop trying to be all cool! Besides this is your fault!" Naruto yelled and thus started the back and forth argument.  
"These boys are definitely not from around here. Maybe their from Edolas? Could they have been the cause of that pillar of light assisting from nowhere?" Makarov thought as he closely inspected the two.  
"Wait... The Hidden Leaf? I think I've heard that somewhere before..." Said Levy. She is a rather young, petite teenage girl of a slender build who stands at a rather below-average height for her age. Her shoulder-length blue hair, which has eyebrow-length bangs, is tied up with a colorful bandana around her head.  
"Really you have?!" Naruto asked, his eyes lighting up like a Christmas tree.  
"I'm sure I probably read about it in a book somewhere, but I don't know where it is." Levy said and Naruto's expression became disappointed again.  
"I'll go down to the guild's library and search."  
"Can I ask you two something?" Makarov asked and they have him their attention and he took it as a sign to ask.  
"A few hours ago, a beam of light appeared from nowhere in the South West. Did you see it?" Makarov asked.  
"Beam of light?" Sasuke questioned furthering Makarov's suspicions.  
"Well the place you're looking for... I don't think you can go back there by normal means." Makarov said and Sasuke sighed deeply.  
"I figured as much." Sasuke said.  
"Wait Master, what do you mean by that?" said Erza, (insert Erza character description).  
Unfortunately their investigation of Naruto and Sasuke's home had to come to a halt. The doors of the guildhall opened up and three more people came into the guild. The Strauss siblings who all had snow white hair consisted of two girls and one boy. Mirajane, was the oldest who is a slim young woman of below average height. She has long, white hair which curls slightly at the ends, with two bangs framing her face and reaching down to her chest; her hairstyle's most distinctive trait is a short, upward ponytail obtained by gathering and tying the hair covering her forehead.

Elfman was a towering young man with tan skin and spiky white hair. He wore a navy blue uniform with purplish blue inners, and a kanji on the back of the jacket that read "the greatest". Lisanna was the youngest of the three and she is a young petite girl with short, white hair and blue eyes. She wore a short, dark red dress with a white collar and bow paired up with brown shoes.  
"We're back home guys! Did you miss us?" Lisanna announced herself to the guild.  
"Welcome home Lisanna!" Everyone shouted, welcoming 'Fairy Tail's Little Sister'.  
"I see the guild is as manly as ever." said Elfman.  
"I don't want to go on a job as long as that ever again." Mirajane said as she let out a deep sigh. She looked over to the bar where Naruto and Sasuke were currently standing. She also noticed that the Master was there too. She slid over to the Master and whispered to him, "Who are these bums?"  
"Hey who're you calling a bum?" Naruto yelled, a tick mark developing on his temple.  
"You of course, just look at yourself." Mirajane responded with an incredibly smug grin. Naruto inspected his body and just realized that his own clothes were messed up.  
"Gah I didn't even realize my clothes were so messed up!" He screamed frantically trying to cover up the parts of his exposed skin.  
"Haha reminds me of old Droopy drawers over here!" said Natsu, a young man with pink hair and a scaly patterned scarf.  
"Who you calling Droopy drawers, you pink haired freak!?" said Gray, a boy with raven hair but he was wearing nothing but his underwear.

"Gray, your clothes!" The entire guild yelled as he also began frantically searching for his lost clothing.  
"Oh by the way, Master did you see that giant beam of light in the sky a little while ago?" Mirajane asked. Makarov cleared his throat and said, "We were just talking about that before you came in. I think these two were the source of that light." Makarov said and Mirajane's eyes widened at his statement. She looked at Naruto and Sasuke who were both just blankly starting at her. She paused for a moment before a smirk appeared on her face.  
"Pffff, no way." She laughed and this time they both became annoyed by what she did.  
"What's that supposed to mean!?" Naruto questioned as she just laughed.  
"Well the black haired one maybe. But definitely not him." Mirajane continued to insult Naruto much to his dismay. However Erza came out and said, "You should know first hand that you shouldn't judge a person's strength by the way they look. You might get hurt. Again." Erza taunted Mirajane with a smirk and the latter nearly had a vein pop out of her skill.

"What did you say? You Hermaphrodite!" Mirajane spat. There was a heavy tension building in that area of the guild hall.  
"The temperature in here just dropped, wicked." Naruto said and the two S-class female wizards began releasing their hostile magical aura towards one another.  
"STOP IT RIGHT NOW!" Makarov's voice boomed from his giant form. This tiny old man went from being a smurf to a beast within an instant.  
"HUGE!" Naruto and the rest of the guild shrieked, tossing their hands up in fear. Erza and Mirajane bowed to Makarov, both apologizing for their actions.  
"Jeez we have people who need our help and you wanna act like children" Makarov scolded as he began to shrink back down to his normal size.  
"You'll have to excuse them, I run a pretty hot headed guild." Makarov said and Naruto smiled from ear to ear.  
"We're the same way!" He said, maintaining his smile the whole way through. Makarov smiled in return and asked, "Well what are you going to do now?"  
Naruto paused for a moment. It was true, they were in an entirely different world right now and had no idea how things worked here let alone how to get back home.  
"We're going to need more information if we want to go back to the elemental nations." Sasuke said.  
"Why don't you join our guild? We'll try our best to get you where you need to go." Makarov asked and Naruto's eyes lit up like Christmas lights from his offer.  
"I'd love to!"  
The entire guild started to cheer at the announcement of a brand new member. However, it got quiet again as everyone began to stare intently at Sasuke who had remained silent for a while. He sighed and said,  
"Well it's not like we have anything better to do." The guild erupted into cheers and many people were going to look for a chance to find out more about the new recruits. Lisanna came to them with the guild mark stamp and asked them where they wanted their mark.  
"Right here in red!" Naruto said as he pointed towards his bare right shoulder. Sasuke held up his left forearm and said, "Black."  
"Alright let's party!" Natsu yelled and the entire guild cheered.  
"Hold on before we start partying, you guys need some new clothes." Makarov said as he pulled out his wallet and handed each of them two 1000 dollar bills.  
"This should be enough to get whatever you feel like." Makarov said. They bowed in appreciation, saying thanks before beginning to head out.  
"But wait, Master, you still never explained why they can't get home by normal means." Erza said.  
"If you want to know so badly then go with them." Makarov said as he hopped behind the bar and poured himself a mug of liquor from the barrel.  
"Yes sir." She said like a soldier receiving orders.  
"I'll go too. They'd probably get lost with ol' redhead over here leading the way." Mirajane taunted. Erza just ignored the rude comment and proceeded to catch up to Naruto and Sasuke who were already quite the distance away.  
"What do you think we should do first?" Naruto asked.  
"We'll let that blue haired one finish searching for whatever clues she can get. If there's no leads we'll just search ourselves." Sasuke said and Naruto put his hand on his chin in contemplation.  
"If what the old man said is true, then people would look for us won't they?"  
"Not necessarily. When we came out of that hole, I didn't see any witnesses. All of those people were unconscious." Sasuke said.  
"At any rate, staying low is probably our best option."  
"With the way they were acting I don't know if that's possibly y'know" Naruto laughed as the two female wizards had caught up with them.  
"We've never officially met, my name is Erza Scarlet." She greeted politely, even adding a tiny bow in her greeting.  
"Sasuke Uchiha." He said in a monotone voice. He didn't even turn around to greet her which made her feel a bit disrespected. She shook her head to clear out the negative qualms she started to feel about him.  
 _"A sword?"_ She thought when she noticed the sheath attached to Sasuke's hip.  
"So you're a swordsman too? I'd love to see how good you are." Erza said and Sasuke looked over at her from the corner of his eye.  
"Hn, Is that a challenge?" He asked.

"That depends, if you're up for one" Erza smirked, leering him into her challenge.  
"Hey Blondie where you from?" Mirajane asked. Naruto pointed to the Leaf headband on his head and said, "The Hidden Leaf Village!" Mirajane looked downright puzzled from his statement.  
"Where the heck is that?" She asked and Naruto was about to answer but then Makarov's words echoed in his head. I'm not sure if you can get back by normal means. Then his face was filled with sadness when he remembered.  
"I'm not... sure how to answer that..." Naruto said in a low voice.  
"Does it have to do with what the Master said?" Erza asked.  
"It's as he said, we can't go home by normal means. I don't exactly know what happened, but we definitely can't go back as we are now." Sasuke explained as they stopped in front of a clothing store.

"Hmmm, getting some new clothes myself doesn't sound too bad either." Erza said as she too entered the store.

"Ah what the heck, I just got paid." Mirajane said as she followed them inside.

"Is it possible to get this symbol stiched onto the back of this shirt?" Sasuke asked the shopkeeper as he pointed towards the Uchiha crest on his back as he held a black longsleeved high collared shirt. Naruto had gotten a black uniform-style jacket with an orange zipper that features several buttons on the waist and sleeves, but what really caught his eye was a cloak that was just like the one his father wore as the Fourth Hokage. It was white and had red flames adorning the bottom, but it was blank. He was definitely going to get it and have them stitch words on it. After the shopping trip Naruto and Sasuke came out with their new outfits. **(A/N: Just imagine their "Naruto: The Last" outfit, just with Naruto having a** **cloak** **like the Fourth** **Hokage** **on and instead of that raggidy hooded cloak Sasuke has, he has that black one like in the last chapter of the Manga.)**

"Hmmm I still have quite a bit of money left over." Sasuke said as he held one of the bills Makarov gave him and a 100 jewel bill.  
"Aaahhh that feels so much better" Naruto said as he stretched in his newly bought clothing. Then a loud growl erupted from Naruto's stomach.  
"Jeez I'm hungry, I feel like I haven't eaten anything in years!" Naruto said as he dug into his pockets and pulled out several bills. " _Four hundred fifty..."_ He counted. _"I don't think that's much..."_  
"Hey how much is it to get some ramen around here?" Naruto asked.  
"Ramen? I don't think I've ever seen a ramen shop in Magnolia." Erza said and Naruto slumped over, a depressing rain cloud loomed over his head.  
"No ramen? I wanna go home right now." Naruto sobbed as his stomach continued to growl louder and louder. Everyone around him sweatdropped at the blonde on his knees pleading to whoever would listen for a bowl of ramen.

"What's the big deal about ramen?" Mirajane asked and in an instant, Naruto immediately grabbed the strings of her top as if trying to hoist her up. Still weeping anime tears he said, "Are you kidding me? The succulent pork belly, sweet savory noodles, and the thick broth. It's the food of the Gods." His mind wandered in to unwavering bliss just from talking about his favorite food. Saliva was dripping down his chin, his mind overflowing in ramen ecstasy. However, he truly made a mistake that he would probably regret the rest of his life. The whole market had paused what they were doing and stared in silence. The towns people's jaws nearly hit the floor. All of the men around had hearts in their eyes and drool dripping down their mouths. Erza covered her mouth, gasping in shock and Sasuke pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Baka..."

" _This feeling… I haven't felt it since Sai called Sakura-chan ugly."_ Naruto thought as he snapped back to the real world. A radiant murderous intent was being unleashed from the ivory haired beauty. Naruto's eyes widened and he realized that he was still holding her top up. In his peripheral vision he saw two identical balls moving freely underneath his arms.

 _Boing! Boing!_

He looked down and his jaw nearly dropped to the floor when he saw two unleashed white globes of flesh underneath his arms jiggling about. An atomic blush grazed his face before becoming incredibly pale and drenched in sweat. His whole life began to flash before his eyes as he remembered all the people who sacrificed themselves in order to help him achieve peace in the ninja world.

" _Obito… Nagato… Mom… Dad… Looks like I'll be joining you soon. Life after the ninja war was great while it lasted."_ He thought as he accepted his fate. Silence, followed by a merciless beating, and tremors that shook the market.

Naruto drifted along the sewers of his mindscape towards the biggest friend he had ever made. The gigantic nine tailed fox sat there, his tails swinging freely as he watched the morsel drift his way. Naruto held an emotionless expression as his body continued to drift along.

" **So you've been beaten near death again haven't you?"** Kurama asked and Naruto didn't even utter a single word as he just lay there in the water. His body stopped drifting when he came close to the nine tailed fox but he didn't even make any effort to stand. Kurama let out a hearty laugh watching the way his jinchuriki behaved.

" **Watching you get punished for being an idiot will always be amusing."** Kurama laughed and Naruto just continued to lie there. The former's expression became a bit more serious when he noticed that the blonde didn't have a witty retort to say back.

" **No response today? You're usually full of comebacks. Or are you too busy remembering getting a front row seat of that woman's meat bags?"** Kurama asked and this finally got a reaction out of the blonde. A pervy smile spread across his face with a slight red dust covering his cheeks.

"They were pretty nice..." He said in bliss as his mind drifted off into a bouncy heaven. After a few seconds of day dreaming he snapped back to reality and sat up. He turned to his fox companion and asked, "Oi, Kurama, do you know what happened to us?"

" **I was asleep the entire time, so I only know just as much as you."** He answered and Naruto frowned. He leaned on his fist, trying to contemplate what exactly was going on with them.

" **The best course of action is to probably find the biggest library and search it thoroughly."** Kurama advised.

"We should tell Sasuke, I know he can come up with something to figure this out." Naruto said as he began walking away from Kurama.

"Oh and do something about my injuries will you?" He asked and Kurama scoffed at him.

" **Who am I? Your doctor?"**

Naruto's physical body was currently being dragged back to the guild hall with numerous injuries to his face. Lumps, cuts, bruises, skull fractures, you name it, were present on the shinobi's head. Despite the beating, surprisingly no blood or dirt got on to his new clothes. Lucky for him. Mirajane was giving the death glare to everyone as they walked by. If they even so much as glance at her in any way that she decides to be personal, it's game over. She crossed her arms over her breast as if it would undo what Naruto had done by accident.

"Are you sure he's going to be okay? He hasn't moved for quite a while." Erza asked as she looked down on Naruto's prone body in the hands of Sasuke.

"It would take a lot more than that to kill this idiot." He answered and suddenly steam began to rise from the shinobi in question. They looked down at him and saw that all his wounds were starting to close up and lumps started to recede. Sasuke released one of his usual grunts and dropped Naruto to the ground with a smirk. Mirajane turned around when she heard the thump and an irritated eyebrow gave rise.

"Oi teme, you really didn't have to drop me like that." Naruto said as he dusted himself off. He looked ahead of him to see an irritated Mirajane looking just about ready to take his head off again. Sweat began to drip down his brow as he hurriedly scurried behind Erza looking for protection.

"I'm sorry, please don't hurt me." Naruto pleaded as he clung to Erza's blue skirt. Sasuke hoisted him up by the collar of his cloak and he still put up his hands in defense trying to prepare for the incoming beating. Mirajane expressed her irritation with a 'tch' before turning back around and continuing the walk back towards the guild.

"Hey you better let go of there before you cause another incident." Sasuke warned as he put his friend back down.

"Whew that was close. I thought I was gonna die." Naruto sighed in relief as his normal goofy smile made its way back on to his face.

"How is it that you don't have a single scratch on you?" Erza asked and Naruto patted Erza on the back and said,

"Ahh, don't worry about the small stuff. I'm still hungry. Do you think someone can make me ramen at the guild?" He asked and marched towards the guild, making sure that he did not come too close to the ivory haired reaper.

Once they had returned to the guild, everyone was shaking in their books at the expression they saw Mirajane return with. But they were also confused when they saw the other three.

"Wait… Mira is angry. But no one is covered in bruises? How is that possible?"

"Was someone finally able to avoid her assault?"

"I just hope she doesn't take her anger out on us." Several guild members murmured among themselves. However they were quickly silent when the death glare was sent there way. They cowered in fear under the presence of the snow haired woman.

"What the hell are you looking at?" She hissed, making them scurry away even further. She grabbed Naruto by the collar of his cloak and hoisted him up. "I swear if you tell anyone about what happened today, I'll kill you. Understand?" She threatened the three of them. Once she released him from her grasp he immediately dropped to his knees and bowed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't meant to unveil your chest to the world." Naruto apologized and everyone's jaws dropped to the floor.

"WAS THAT IDIOT EVEN LISTENING TO WHAT SHE JUST SAID?!" Everyone in guild screamed in horror. The same killing intent returned to Mirajane's form and Kurama nearly suffocated from laughter inside of the boy's mindscape.

"I'm convinced he's a masochist." Erza said and an uncharacteristic chuckle erupted from Sasuke mouth.

"He might actually die this time."

"I'm going to beat the memory out of you..." Mirajane said in a low voice as she cracked her knuckles. Incrdibly loud, unmanly shrieks and the sounds of fist connecting with face echoed throughout all of Magnolia. One horrendous beating of an idiotic shinobi shifted into a full scale brawl/party, depending on how you look at it. Naruto just barely crawled out of the mess and groggily made his way to the counter.

"Ramen… I need ramen..." Naruto begged as he reached for the bar stool with all his might. Lisanna had been working the bar for the day and she giggled at his actions.

"I don't know if I'm as good as Mira-nee but I'll try." She said as went into the guild's kitchen.

"That psycho can actually cook?" Sasuke said and Makarov who was sitting on the bar counter nodded his head.

"Despite her demeanor, she's actually really good at it." He answered as he took a swig of his beer. Levy approached the bar, wearing some red glasses and a scroll in her hand.

"Oh Levy, how'd it go?" Makarov asked.

"Sorry, this was all I could find about your village." she said as she handed Sasuke the scroll. He thanked her as he opened up the scroll and read its contents.

"This is just a report on the amount of ninja tools currently in supply at the village." Sasuke said and Levy's expression became downcast.

"I'm sorry, that's all we have." She said in a regretful tone.

"Don't worry about it. I didn't expect to get a huge clue anyway." He said and her expression lightened up a bit.

"If there's anything else I can help with please let me know." Levy said and Sasuke nodded. Lisanna returned with the bowl of ramen and placed in front of Naruto who finally managed to climb on the bar stool.

"I heard what happened with the search. There's all kind of places in Fiore that hold information. You can just search through there." Lisanna said before seeing an empty bowl in her face.

"More please." Naruto asked and the ones around him screamed, "ALREADY?!"

"Ramen sure does the body good." Naruto said as he patted his stomach, all of his newest injuries were already healed. A few more hours passed as night began to fall. Everyone exhausted their energies from fighting and their bodies were littered throughout the guild hall. Naruto had exhausted Lisanna from the endless amount of bowls of ramen that she had her make for him.

"Never… feeding… him ramen again..." Lisanna said between pants as Naruto happily patted his overstuffed belly. Sasuke simply had some riceballs for his meal and was satisfied with that.

" _Those two are like polar opposites..."_ Makarov thought as he studied the two for as much as he could.

"Well, I've certainly picked up two interesting individuals. It's getting late. You two can sleep in the guild infirmary if you have no where to sleep." Makarov said as he turned into his giant form and yelled at everybody to go home. One by one everyone in the guild began leaving for the night.

"Bye bye everyone!" Naruto yelled, seeing them off with his usual grin. Well… at least until the ivory reaper returned its glare one last time before heading out the door.

They entered the infirmary which looked like a normal hospital room, full of beds with white sheets, pillows and curtains.

"We need to start gathering information as soon as possible." Sasuke said as they began taking off their clothes to get ready for bed.

"Yeah, I wanna go back to ichiraku's as soon as possible." Naruto said.

"Is ramen all you think about?"

Naruto lied down in the bed and immediately frowned.

"Just as I thought. Hospital beds are ALWAYS uncomfortable..."

"Stop complaining and go to sleep."

"Remember to stay as low as possible, we don't want to have a run in with the law in a land we know know nothing about." Sasuke said but all he got as a response was loud snoring. Ignoring the sudden urge to run a chidori through his back, he followed the blonde's actions and turned in for the night.

 **Next Chapter: Testing The Waters.**


	3. Testing The Waters!

**Chapter 3: Testing The Waters**

The entire guild gathered outside on the sandy shore that was behind the building. The sea breeze, and the sound of the waves would have a calming effect on anyone. However, this wasn't exactly a moment to directly be calm. Natsu had challenged Naruto to a fight, although the latter had refused several times, Natsu bugged him every two seconds. So here they were, standing a few meters away from each other. Makarov walked between the two and his hand up in the air. "The first one to render his opponent unable to battle wins. Are you ready?" Makarov asked the two combatants and they both nodded.

"I hope you're ready, cuz I have no intention of holding back." Naruto said as shifted his neck from side to side, emitting loud cracking noises.

"I'm all fired up now." Natsu said, with a confident smirk.

"Oi Kurama, let's just intimidate him a bit. I don't wanna hurt him." Naruto said and Kurama chuckled.  
"The old stare down trick huh? Haven't used that in a while." Kurama said as Naruto began to funnel a little bit of his friends' chakra into himself. Only enough to change his eyes from his normal blue color to blood red with black slit pupils. Makarov called for the match to start and Natsu didn't plan on wasting any time and immediately rushed Naruto with a flame covered fist.

 **(Play Naruto OST "Need To Be Strong")**

When he got about three feet away from Naruto he suddenly felt discouraged. He looked into Naruto's eyes and completely froze. His slit red eyes were peering right into Natsu' black portals. The longer he stared, the more he felt like he wanted to back. Even some of the members of the guild who had weaker hearts began to back peddle away from the blonde.  
 _"What a fearsome power this boy has! If he intensifies that energy even more, people around here are going to start fainting!"_ Makarov thought in a panic. Makarov was about to order the people who were faint of heart to get away from the battle but Natsu interrupted him.  
"I'm not running away! MY FRIENDS ARE RIGHT HERE WITH ME!" Natsu yelled and it snapped people out of their trance. Naruto stopped releasing his killer intent and smiled slightly.  
"Hmm, not bad." Sasuke said, watching Natsu breath very heavily. His breath was hitched, he was drenched in sweat, he looked like he could collapse at any moment.  
"What did Naruto do just now? Was it some kind of illusion?" Erza asked. Sasuke shook his head in response and said, "It was only intimidation. If his heart was as weak as them, he would have passed out already." He pointed towards Team Shadow Gear, who were some of the first to start backing away from Naruto. They were too stunned from his killer intent to even make a reply to his comment. Natsu screamed as he rushed Naruto again, his eyes seemed to have rolled into the back of his head.

 **(END OST)**

"Old man, the match is over." Naruto said as he side stepped Natsu's punch and gave him a quick chop to the neck effectively knocking him out. Almost everyone in the guild was taken aback from what had just happened. This new guy, who didn't look any older than Natsu just beat him without even trying.

"Natsu!" A flying blue cat flew over to hisi fallen friend.

"WOAH A CAT THAT CAN TALK!" Naruto yelled as he stared at the flying feline. This cat's name is Happy.

"What did you do to him? Will he be okay?" Happy asked and Naruto smiled.

"Yeah, he should wake up in about a 30 seconds or so. He was pretty much unconscious already before he even tried to hit me." He reassured Happy as he picked up Natsu and slung him over his shoulder. He walked back over to the rest of the guild, and quite a few of the fodder members were avoiding him.

"What? I'm not going to hurt you or anything..." Naruto sweatdropped.

" **Maybe it's because they're looking into the eyes of a demon..."** Kurama sighed.

"Oh..."

Now was time for the main event. It wasn't everyday that you heard the mighty Titania was going to have a duel. Heck, you never even heard of someone accepting a duel from Erza unless it was Mirajane. Other then that, this was to be a day to remember. Sasuke and Erza was facing each other, standing only a few meters apart. The breeze blowing through her scarlet red hair, and his cloak as black as darkness. The palpable tension in the air was so thick it could probably be cut with a butter knife.

"The new guy is going up against Erza, on his second day? Gutsy move." said a tall young woman with tan skin. She wears a light blue bikini top, a pair of capri pants, and her guild mark was located on the left side of her waist. This woman was Cana Alberona.

"Everybody place your bets here!" Makarov called out, walking around with two buckets that had each of the contestants names written on them. Of course majority of the bets were placed on Erza, who had a reputation of being the strongest woman in Fairy Tail. Titania… she's the queen of the fairies. However, no one knew of Sasuke's reputation in the shinobi world to truly make a call. As Makarov made his way toward Naruto, who dropped all the remaining cash that he had from the previous day in Sasuke's bucket.

"What do you think will happen, Happy?" Natsu asked his flying blue companion.

"Natsu, you're awake!" Happy said ecstatically to see his best friend

"How come you can fly and talk?!" Naruto asked in amazement as he watched the blue feline hover around like it's nobody's business.

"Aye! Because I'm a cat and my name's Happy!" He introduced and Naruto was completely enticed by the feline.

"I see, it does make sense now,"

"NO IT DOESN'T!" shouted the guild members who were overhearing the conversation.

"I have something I need to do, so I'll make this quick." Sasuke said as he drew his sword and pointed it towards his adversary. Erza held out her right hand and a sword appeared from nowhere.

"You're quite confident, aren't you?" Erza asked. Sasuke remained silent, simply waiting for Makarov to call the match into motion. Makarov set down the two buckets and walked towards the midpoint of the two combatants.  
"Are you ready?" He asked and neither of them said a word to each other. All the spectators were watching intently, eager to know exactly what this guy could do. The majority of the guild placed their money on Erza, showing that they had confidence in her ability to win. The breeze blew one last time and the very moment it stopped, Makarov called the match to start.  
The red head wasted no time in rushing her opponent. Sasuke quickly shifted his sword into a reverse grip and parried the attack. Since he was physically stronger than Erza she was knocked back about a foot or so.  
"I'll give you ten seconds, starting now. If you don't come at me with the intent to kill. You cannot beat me." Sasuke warned and Erza smirked.  
"I'm not as foolish as to give in to a ploy like that." She responded as used her magic to bring a second sword into this realm. She rushed him once more and Sasuke dodged and parried every blow she tried to land gracefully.  
 _"In ten seconds? He's gotta be joking."_ Gray thought. He knew Erza for a long time so he knew her strength very well. Even if she could be defeated, there's no way it could end that quickly.

 _Clang!…_

 _Clang!..._

 _Tccchhh!..._

 _Clang!…_

The sound of metal clashing echoed through the air as the two continued their bout. Erza frowned as she tried desperately to land at least one good hit on Sasuke but was failing.  
 _"I don't get it._ _Five seconds have already passed and h_ _e hasn't tried to hit me_ _even once_ _."_ She thought as the time ticked. You would think she should be glad that he hadn't once made a true offensive move yet during the entire bout. However, your focus should always be on your opponent because one second can be the difference between life and death in battle.  
 _4..._  
Erza had managed to corner him against a large boulder. She lunged the sword that was in her left hand at his face but he moved his head to the side, barely dodging it. But in that same moment with her right hand, she aimed for his midsection and she was sure she had him. However Sasuke lifted his left leg and stopped the blow by stomping his foot right on her hand to halt the momentum. Using that to his advantage, he used that same foot to make her right arm cross over to the left and slipped through the small gap that opened up. He made his first offensive move by immediately turning and making an attempt at her scalp. She barely moved out of the way as the blade caught some of her beautiful scarlet red hair. Once Sasuke realized that he missed he immediately gained some distance between himself and Erza.  
 _3..._  
Erza was in shock when she saw several strands of her hair fall right before her eyes. She looked over to Sasuke who was pretty much back in the same position they started in. His cold black eyes peered right into her very being. Now she was feeling the pressure. She didn't know what he was going to, but after that swordsmanship he just displayed, it may not have been a bluff after all.

" _There's two seconds left!"_  
After regaining her composure she rushed right back into battle. But this time as soon as she attempted to strike, he didn't just parry the blow. He knocked the sword clean out of her right with a well placed strike.  
 _1..._  
Erza was definitely caught by surprise from the sudden change of Sasuke's actions in the battle. The tide of the battle changed in less than a second. Erza watched her sword get embedded into the ground. However once her eyes returned to what her target was it was already too late. Sasuke was already several feet behind her with his back turned.  
"0..." Sasuke said as sheathed his sword. And once he did, all of Erza's armor feel off of her in pieces. Her black undershirt, her blue skirt was ripped to shreds, leaving a nearly naked Erza. The only thing saving her from a birthday suit presentation was the Lacey black underwear that she had worn that day. On top of that, several wounds appeared on her body and began leaking blood. The wounds weren't life threatening, however they were deep enough to make it difficult to stand up on her own right away. Makarov was about to declare Sasuke the winner but Erza stabbed her sword into the ground and attempted to stand back up.

"Hold on… I'm...not finished yet..." She declared as she began to stand back up.

"Stand up as much as you want. The way you are now, you will never beat me." Sasuke said as he turned to face her. Her eyes were full of determination, but also she had an angry glare to her. He walked over to her and stood over her as she attempted to stand herself up.

"You… have the same eyes as I once had." Sasuke said and she had a puzzled look on her face. She stayed silent, as she continued to stare him down. She stared into his eyes as they suddenly changed. His right eye became red and hard three circling tomoe within it. The other became purple with several rings surrounding the iris, and also several tomoe along the rings. Erza's eyes widened when she saw the change but suddenly became unconscious, and lost in a dream world.  
"No way… He really beat Erza... in ten seconds!" Happy exclaimed. The rest of the guild had their jaws on the floor. The mighty Titania has fallen. No one ever thought that those words would ever cross her mind.

"Hmmmm, the new guy ain't half bad." Mirajane said as she watched the red head collapse to her knees.

" _To deliver 13 blows in that instant… That's no ordinary kid."_ Makarov thought as he eyed Sasuke.

"Well if it was a life or death battle, I'm sure that the battle would have lasted much longer. I mean Erza's strong right? If her life depended on it, she surely would have last longer." said Loke, a boy with orange hair, glasses, a green coat and dark pants.

"No..." Naruto said, getting the attention of every spectator who was present. "… If this was life or death, the battle would have ended nine seconds earlier." He continued and at this point, everyone's jaws were already on their way towards the center of the Earth. Everyone shifted their eyes towards the shinobi in question. His black cloak swaying back and forth in the wind. Then everyone stared at the downed red head, her blood dripping from her form. However, Natsu and Happy's eyes remained on Sasuke and stars immediately replaced their eyeballs.

"SO COOOOOL"They both shouted with wide smiles on their faces, however that smile quickly disappeared when Mirajane punched both of them on the back of the head. "Shut up."

"It's a good thing I called Porlyusica to come here before this started." Makarov said aloud to himself as most of the guild ran over to Erza to help her up.

"Oi Sasuke don't you think that was a little much?" Naruto asked.

"The challenge was to render your opponent unable to fight. And I did just that." He replied coolly.

"Jeez you still didn't have to use genjutsu on her." Naruto responded as he walked over to Levy to ask her where the library in town was. Meanwhile Gray was frozen in place. He was in complete shock after watching Erza get defeated so easily. His world became silent, the only thing he could hear was the footsteps of the shinobi donning black.

 _Tss… Tss… Tss…_

The sound of Sasuke's footsteps grinded on Gray's ears. Time seemed to move slow for the ice wizard and once Sasuke was next to him, his heart skipped a beat. He gulped and a bead of sweat dripped down his brow. It felt as if a ghost had walked by him just now, as if Sasuke didn't even recognize that he was standing there.

" _What was that just now?"_ He thought as he looked over his shoulder, watching Sasuke leave the scene as time seemed to finally return to its normal flow.

 **Break…**

Naruto and Sasuke were currently at the library, searching for any clues on where exactly they were and how they could get back to the Elemental Nations. Magnolia's library wasn't exactly meant for wizard research, but there was a section just for them.

"Transformation Magic for Dummies?" Naruto looked at the book frowned at the book and tossed aside. Then he tok up another one, it was red covered its title was, _Fire Magic for Dummies_. He tossed that one aside too. He searched and searched and searched, but every book he came across was titled _'… for Dummies'_

"WHY DO I KEEP COMING ACROSS THESE BOOKS FOR DUMMIES!" Naruto yelled in frustration as he continued to empty the shelves that stood in front of him.

"Maybe it's because you're in the Dummy Section? Idiot." Sasuke said and the books suddenly stopped flying. Naruto looked up and his friend was right. There was a small sign that read _Dummy_ right above him.

"Oooooh, I wish I had saw that earlier." Naruto said as he moved over to the advanced magic section and was just about to begin his search again.

"Put the books back first moron." Sasuke ordered and Naruto looked back at him with a frown.

"You know there's a nicer way to tell people things..." He replied as he formed the hand sign for his famous jutsu. He created two clones and had them do that work for him.

After about an hour of searching through books, Sasuke finally came upon a book that could be beneficial to them.

" _The Theory of Dimensional Travel?"_ Sasuke opened the book and began reading its contents. In order to get through the book and learn as quickly as possible, he put on a pair of red, winged glasses that he had gotten from Levy. Suddenly it seemed as though all the words were being read to him as fast as lightning.

" _Amazing! It's like having a sharingan for reading!"_ He thought as he zoomed through the pages of the book. Taking in so much knowledge about the dimension traveling and different theories of what what dimensions are. Even though he was able to collect so much information, he frowned. Not because it didn't contain anything useful, rather it was too much information. Once the magic glasses finished feeding him the information of the book, he closed it and set it on the table.

"That just made it even more complicated..." Sasuke sighed as he looked over to what Naruto was doing. He saw that Naruto had a book in his hand that the boy seemed to take interest in.

"Oi Sasuke look at this." Naruto said and the former got up and walked over to him. He was holding a book with a rather simple, but unique cover. All it had was a red moon covered partially by several clouds. It was an extremely slim book, it felt as though it only had about 10 pages in it. Though it was in rough condition.

"The Apocalyptic Moon...?" Sasuke read the title out loud and Naruto proceeded to open the book. It was a picture book and the very first picture they saw immediately caused their eyes to widen. It was a picture of one single tree, in an open field, but the grass was stained with blood. And the moon was the same as the cover of the book. The moon shone a blood red, they couldn't help but remember the horrible time they had fighting in the war.

 _'One night, the moon turned red as if it was stained with blood,'_ read the first page. Naruto turned to the next page but it was blank. He ventured through more pages and all of them were blank up until the very end.  
"Huh? Why are all of the pages blank" Naruto asked and Sasuke activated his sharingan to check for any hidden messages or symbols that his sharingan could pick up. He took the book from Naruto and scanned the first page. His hunch was correct. There was a very intricate and complicated design on each one of the pages.  
"There's some kind of symbol on each page and they all look like numbers." He said. There were twelve pages excluding the first one.  
"That book is very mysterious." A voice said from behind the pair of shinobi. It was the librarian, he was a rather elderly looking man but he was tall. He wore a full black suit complimented with a red tie and handkerchief.  
"There are only about 7 copies of that book, but all of them are exactly the same as you see them now." He said and they turned to face this man.  
"The author of this book is Roku Shodaim." He said

"Roku… Shodaim…?" Naruto inquired, looking puzzeled.

" _Roku Shodaim… As in The First Six? Or the first sage of six paths?"_ Sasuke pondered. He decided that they would have to go back to the place that they came from in order to find out more. The librarian said that he didn't know who the man was, or even why this book was written.

"A long time ago, the book was placed in front of the doorstep of several different libraries across the continent. We've asked for help from the wizard guilds, but so far no one has been able to solve the mystery." He explained. The two thought about it for a moment, both thinking that this book may have something to do with them being in this world.

"Can we take the book? I believe we can solve this mystery." Sasuke asked and librarian nodded.

"I can only give you the book, if you're a guild wizard though." He said and Sasuke rolled up his sleeve and uncovered part of the bandages on his arm and showed him the black Fairy Tail symbol that he had put there. Like wise, Naruto slid the clothing on his right shoulder down to show his red mark.

"Oh you two are from Fairy Tail? You must be new recruits because I don't think I've seen you before."

"We just joined yesterday actually." Naruto said, his usual grin plastered on his face. The old man smiled and told them to take the book.

"If you want to get paid, tell your master that you accepted the job request." He said as he waved goodbye to the two young men who moseyed along back to their guild.

 **At the guild hall…**

Erza came out of the infirmary all bandaged up by Porlyusica. The wounds were nothing serious, but the genjutsu that Sasuke put on her was what really made her collapse. Once she stepped out, the entire guild became silent. She noticed that everyone had their eyes glued to her and asked,

"Why are you all staring at me like you've seen a ghost?"

"They're all just worried about you that's all. However, those two over there are a different case." Makarov said while sipping on a cup of beer. He made a gesture over to his left side and she saw Natsu and Gray sitting at a table in complete silence. Both of them looked like they were thinking really hard about something.

In Gray's case, he was trying to figure out exactly what he felt when Sasuke had walked past him earlier. He felt some sort of connection to him but he couldn't exactly figure out why he did. He had never met this guy before he was sure of that. If he met someone who was as strong as he was, there's no way that he would've forgotten. _"This feeling… I kind of remember something similar when I first met Natsu. But definitely not as extreme."_

Meanwhile with Natsu, he was actually thinking about his fight with Naruto and how it ended so pitifully. He wondered if there were other strong guys like him and Gildarts in the world. What if they became enemies of Fairy Tail? He would have to become stronger if he was to protect the people he cared about. "Alright I've decided." Natsu spoke up, gaining the attention of all the other members of the guild. He even snapped Gray out of his thoughts.

"That guy's gonna train me!" Natsu declared. The guild gave their best fish impression when they heard his declaration.

"THAT'S NOT SOMETHING YOU CAN DECIDE!" they yelled and Natsu just stood there picking his ears out for wax. Then a loud grumble was heard and Natsu was instantly at the bar with a fork and knife.

"Can I get some food please, Lisanna?" He asked.

"DON'T CHANGE THE SUBJECT!"

Erza smiled as she too walked over to the bar and asked for a drink of water. The words that Sasuke said to her right before she became unconscious. _"You... have the same eyes as_ _I once had_ _"_ She couldn't understand what he meant by that. His eyes changed into two different eyes at one point, she couldn't do that so how could she have the same eyes as him? Was it an ability that she would gain later on. Or was it the way that she viewed the world? She decided that she would ask him once he returned to the guild.

"Still, those new guys certainly shook up the guild for their first time being here." Makarov said, taking another swing of his beverage.

"Say Master, do you think this meeting was just by chance?" Erza asked as Lisanna placed the glass in front of her. Makarov chuckled and said,

"That's something we'll see as time passes."

…

Naruto and Sasuke made their way over to the crater that they came out of yesterday. The area was crawling rune knights of the magic council. There were tents everywhere, indicating that these knights would be living here at least until the investigation was over.

"I figured we wouldn't be able to just come back here so easily." Sasuke said.

"So how do we investigate without people noticing?" Naruto asked.

"Just follow my lead," Sasuke then transformed into a regular carpenter outfit but still maintained his normal face and hair. Naruto followed his lead and did the same thing. They walked over to the dig site and were immediately stopped by a Rune Knight named Lahar that was keeping watch. Lahar is a slim man of average height with long, tied up black hair; two bangs frame his face and an unruly tuft covers his forehead, though his lavender eyes are still visible behind his circular-lensed glasses  
"We're construction workers that were sent here to help out at this dig site." Sasuke answered and the guards relaxed a little.  
"Ah, you must be the ones that were sent by Lord Siegrain. Right this way please." Lahar and his partner stepped aside and escorted the two towards the center of the massive crater. There were many people digging, but the sight that was peculiar to them. They were blocking off a small area, and no one could cross that line. Upon further inspection, they realized that it was the holes that they had come out of.  
"Hey, why is that one part of the dig site blocked off?" Naruto asked.  
"That's something Lord Siegrain said he'd take care of personally. Even we don't know why" Lahar answered. As they continued walking, they met up with another Rune Knight. When tether Knight turned around to greet them his eyes widened.  
"Y-you're the ones I saw come out of that hole over there!" He accused as he pointed at Naruto.  
"Wait, are you sure?" Lahar asked and guard nodded furiously.  
"Excuse me but I'm afraid I have to take you to headquarters to ask you a few questions." Lahar said.  
"Hold on, what for?!" Naruto demanded.  
"There was eye witness account at the time of the explosions' aftermath saying there was a blonde teenager with three whiskers on his face and a boy who's hair resembled the tail of a chicken." Lahar read off of a piece of documentation that he had with him and Naruto burst out laughing.  
"See I always told you your hair looks like a chicken's butt."  
"Shut up."  
 _BONK!_  
 **NEXT CHAPTER:** **Naruto and Sasuke's first job! Destroy Ghoul Spirit!**


	4. Naruto and Sasuke's First Job!

**Chapter 4: Naruto and Sasuke's first job! Destroy Ghoul Spirit!**

"It's been three whole days what the heck happened to those guys?!" Natsu shouted in frustration. 

"Maybe they found a way back home already and never bothered to come say goodbye" Happy said in a disappointing tone. 

"It is rather strange, I thought it was just a simple trip to the library." Erza mused. Then suddenly Jet and Droy burst in through the door of the guild hall with newspapers in their hand screaming, "BIG NEWS!" Everyone nearly broke their necks with how fast they turned towards the two. 

"Let me see that!" Makarov ordered and Jet tossed the newspaper to him. He read and instantly eyes widened a bead of sweat dripped down his face. "But how?" 

Just a few days ago, a massive pillar of light appeared on the south western part of Fiore causing a massive worry across the continent. Siegrain of the magic council said this, "Citizens of Fiore need not to worry anymore. The Magic Council has swiftly and decisively handled the problem at hand." Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha, two people who recently joined the Fairy Tail guild were the cause of that light appearing. As to whether or not they are still a threat to the continent, the Magic Council had refused to disclose that information to the public. As of now they are in custody in the Magic Council until further notice. The article read, and there was a photo of Naruto and Sasuke being held in handcuffs and taken away by Rune Knights. 

"Gramps if that's the case then we have to go over there right now!" Natsu yelled and just before anyone had a chance to say anything to Natsu, the doors burst open again. 

"Mr. Makarov, Master of the Fairy Tail guild, the Magic Council has called for an immediate summoning of your presence." Said An anthropomorphic toad, dressed in the uniform of the Magic Council. Makarov grunted at the order because he knew exactly what it was about. 

"It's about my new kids huh? Guess there's no way around it." He said as he hopped off the stool he was sitting on and quietly went along with the council escort. 

"Thank you for your cooperation." It answered. 

"Hold on, I'm going too." Natsu said, Gray also stepping forward to be apart of this expedition to the Magic Council's headquarters.

"No! You don't know how to keep your cool. Mira, you come since Erza is still recovering." Makarov ordered and Natsu tried to argue until he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"But how come the ice princess gets to go and not me?!" Natsu whined, and Gray immediately reacted to his insult and began butting heads with him.

"What did you call me, dragon boy?" Gray snarled and they began spewing insults back and forth towards each other. These insults were suppressed immediately once, the one who maintained all the order inside of Fairy Tail interfered.

"Oooohh, you two are going to cause trouble for our Master right here in front of the council?" Erza intervened in the middle of their shouting contest. They both immediately bowed in repentance and said, "No, ma'am." 

"These two are the only escorts you may take with you. Now let us be off, neither of us have much time to waste." The guild watched as Makarov, Mirajane, and Gray left with the Council. Immediately there were theories on what could have happened to them to make themselves get caught. 

"Maybe they destroyed something and the Council caught them." 

"Maybe they got arrested for being a man!" 

"Who could get arrested for that?" 

"Either way, since they're in our guild now, the Council is bound to keep even more of a watch on us since they're the cause of that incident a few days ago. That means everybody must be on their best behavior!" Erza warned, giving the guild her classic death stare in which they whimpered in response

 **Two hours later (ERA)**

After the long and quiet carriage ride, they finally reached the Era, the Magic Council's headquarters. After going through a quick security check, they trekked the long hallways towards the interrogation room where the officer escorting them said Naruto and Sasuke were being held. When they came into the room, what they saw was certainly unexpected. Naruto and Sasuke were sitting opposite ends of a small square table. Big enough for about four people. There were a bunch of empty cups of instant ramen about the place along with several rice grains strewn across the table and floor. Both of them had their heads down on the table, unmoving as if they died in that very spot. The guard who was keeping watch at the time walked over to him and banged his staff on the table several times. 

"Get up. Now." He ordered and groans erupted from the table as they both began to lift their heads up. 

"Huh, is it morning already?" Naruto said, a bit of drool hanging from the corner of his mouth. His vision was blurred for a moment but when he wiped his eyes, he began to sob tears of joy, Sasuke woke up with half-lidded eyes and a grain of rice clinging to the corner of his lip. 

"Guys... Help me." Naruto begged as he stumbled his way over to Makarov and his escorts. 

"You guys look pathetic. What were they doing to you?" Mirajane asked as Naruto sobbed on her skirt. She calmly kicked him off of her 

"Just what the heck has been going on here?" Makarov demanded of the soldier. 

"We assure Mr. Makarov, we haven't done anything inhuman to them. We only asked them a few questions and ran some tests." 

"A few questions?..." Sasuke mumbled as he glared at the guard. Three days was certainly a long time to just 'ask questions'

"It was horrible… They kept asking us the same things over and over again. They ran several blood tests, several tests on something called the MPF. Ugh it was just bad." Naruto complained.

"Well, you didn't even exist in this world until a few days ago." Mirajane said matter-of-factly as she helped him to his feet. 

"It's time for you to leave, the heads of the Council would like to speak with you three before you leave." 

"Oh so more questions then?" Sasuke asked sarcastically. 

"Haha, when did you get a sense of humor?" Naruto asked and Sasuke ignored him as he walked over to the coat hanger in the room and grabbed his cloak. The guards had put handcuffs on the two shinobi. They glared at the one putting them on and he said,

"It's government policy." 

Naruto bobbed his head from side to side in a mocking fashion and said in a mocked the guards monotone voice like a child, "Ith govmen polithy" earning a giggle out of Mirajane. They walked through the long hallways of the Council until they came upon don't gigantic, important looking doors. Any fool could see that this lead to the leaders of the Magic Council. Lahar was standing in front of the doors and said to the group, 

"They've been expecting you." Lahar said as he opened the door and motioned for the group to go in. Once Naruto, Sasuke and Makarov had gone in, Lahar stopped Gray and Mirajane from entering. 

"Hey what's the big idea?" Mirajane asked, looking straight into his stoic face. 

"Sorry, you'll have to wait here until they are done speaking. I cannot allow you to pass." He answered and she growled at him. Gray told her to calm down and that they wouldn't be in there for long. She responded with a 'tch' and just sat over at a bench that was outside the room. 

... 

The Fairy Tail wizards were face to face with the nine members of the Council. Sasuke scanned all nine of them really quickly as soon as he entered the room. _"Seems like a pretty normal council to me. Except for those two."_ He thought as his eyes fell on Siegrain and Ultear. Something about them seemed off to them, like they simply didn't belong on that platform. 

"So... What are we here for?" Naruto asked. 

"You two are responsible for a mile worth of damage to the land and you ask why you are here?" The old blonde lady asked.

"According to the research conducted on the two of you. The discovery of your existence occurred can be assumed to be at the same time as that beam of light that suddenly appeared? You two also said that you came here just a few days ago and did not see a beam of light. You joined Fairy Tail on the same day that you appeared in this world. You have no knowledge of magic, and do not even know how the order of the magic world is kept. Is all of this information correct?" Ultear read off of a piece of paper that she had in front of her and the two of them nodded. 

"Makarov, I leave these two under your responsibility. Should they cause any trouble, you shall be held responsible. Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't let people capable of producing a Dragon level security alert roam free. However, since they were so cooperative during this investigation, we came to a conclusion that they are no threat to the safety of the Magic world. And I hope that you hold up your end of the bargain. 

However... At any time you fail to follow the order of the Council. You will be incarcerated immediately and without fail. You will be under **constant** surveillance, there is nothing that you will be able to hide. The order of the magic world is at stake here. Do you understand me?" The chairman of the Council concluded his little speech. The ones he directed it to followed up with a "Yes Sir." 

"Good, now I have a job for you to do. Normally we don't allow warring between two guilds. However I'll let it be, just this once..." 

...

"Ghoul Spirit? Who are they?" Sasuke asked and Mirajane gave them a brief explanation on how the order of the Magic community is kept. From legal guilds, dark guilds, to independent guilds, to ERA, and finally Fiore's government. 

"I didn't know dark guilds existed. If it's bad having them around, why is it against the law to destroy them?" Naruto questioned. 

"It's because of the Baram alliance." Makarov said. 

"It's an alliance of many dark guilds that work directly under the three Strongest dark guilds in the world, Oracion Seis, Grimoire Heart, and Tartarous." Gray explained. 

"Well, they're dark guilds so it's more like a non aggression pact." Makarov commented.  
The group headed towards Shirotsume, the town that Ghoul Spirit was occupying. Apparently, Shirotsume was the town that the Chairman grew up in and hated the fact that a dark guild was currently occupying it. However, he gave them a strict order not to kill any of the members of Ghoul Spirit, just capture them. 

"Alright, let's make this quick, I wanna go home." Sasuke said. 

"Even though we don't have a home to go to? Yohohohohoho! Homeless joke!" Naruto laughed and immediately had lumps grow on his head from the whacks he got. 

"Who do you think you are?!" Everyone yelled. 

"I'm sorry..." 

After about an hour later they arrived to Shirotsume. They went into town and immediately gathered information on the dark guild's whereabouts. When they asked around a lot of people cowered in fear wanting to keep their mouths shut. 

"Wow, they really have this town under their thumbs." Naruto commented on the behavior of the citizens in the town. 

"Yeah, no wonder the Chairman asked us to free this town." Gray said as another person locked their store in fear. 

"I-if you want to find Ghoul Spirit, their guild hall is on the top of that hill." A very nervous young woman said to them. 

"Just what have they been doing to you guys?" Makarov asked and the woman began to explain how Ghoul Spirit had terrorized them for the past few months. They would tax them heavily, and anyone who didn't obey them would be killed just to set an example for everyone else. It was a horrible story, and that's why everyone lives in fear of that guild. 

"We don't use magic, so there's no way for us to defend ourselves. We asked the guilds for help but no one ever came." She said and tears began to well up in her eyes. 

"Well, we're from the Fairy Tail guild, and we're gonna rid this town of Ghoul Spirit for good." Naruto declared and woman looked up to him. Seeing the sure look on his face she just nodded silently. 

"Alright let's go." Makarov said as they made their way up the hill. 

**One ass kicking later...**

"Wow, they were all pretty weak" Naruto said as he tossed another unconscious body to the side. 

"It's nice that you guys defeated them and all but how are we going to deliver them to the Council?" Gray asked and a light bulb lit up in Naruto's head. He walked over to Sasuke and whispered his idea in his ear. 

"Seriously? That's not a bad idea." Sasuke responded to his whispers. 

"Alright everybody stand back" Naruto warned as Sasuke's eyes changed to his Rinnesharingan. Everyone did as they were told and watched Sasuke carefully. He balled up his fist and slowly opened it, revealing a small black orb. The orb went to hover over the littered bodies of Ghoul Spirit. 

"Chibaku Tensei!" Sasuke said and the ground immediately began to be pulled from the rest of the earth and flew towards the orb. This continued for about five minutes until a complete satellite was created, trapping all of the dark guild inside of it. Sasuke dusted his hands off and said, 

"All right done, and done." 

"Emergency!" The anthropomorphic frog shouted as it burst into the Council room. 

"What is it this time?" The Chairman asked. 

"There's a huge meteor headed this way!" 

The Council members gasped in shock and they immediately all ran outside. When they got there, they were all incredibly shocked. It was true, there was a giant meteor headed their way. But the most shocking thing was the Fairy Tail symbol made out of ice imbedded into the meteor. The meteor slowly came towards them and descended on to the ground. Slowly and carefully as to not cause any destruction of any harm to whoever was there. Once it landed, there was a slight tremor from the sheer weight of the boulder.  
Siegrain made a move first and got cost to the meteor. But once he did it began to crumble before him. Next thing you knew, there was dust, small rocks and giant stones falling from the creation. There lay the unconscious bodies of the dark guild Ghoul Spirit amongst the debris. 

"That certainly is one way to deliver something." Ultear giggled. The rest of the Council, excluding Yajima and Siegrain all looked like they had seen a ghost. 

"Just how in the world were they able to do that?" Michello questioned. 

"The entire magic world just got interesting." Siegrain chuckled as he watched the rune knights go to detain the fallen members of Ghoul Spirit. 

"I don't even think it's been three hours since they left yet." Ultear giggled, meanwhile the rest of the Council members just had their mouth agape. 

"D- Did we just release weapons of mass destruction into the magic world?" The old woman asked and Yajima had an amused smile on his face. 

"I don't know, they seemed like pretty nice kids." Yajima said with a smile. 

"Naruto sure does. But the other one didn't seem too friendly." 

"When push comes to shove he'll probably be the most troublesome to deal with." Ultear said in low volume so that only Siegrain could hear. The latter only smiled mischievously in response.

…

"Is that really the best that these dark guilds can do? How disappointing." Sasuke sighed as the group was forced to walk back to the guild due to creating mass panic amongst the people of Shirotsume. It's not everyday that you see someone able to create meteors and send them flying over your town.

"I just wish the townspeople could have at least thanked us for ridding them of Ghoul Spirit..." Naruto grumbled and his stomach followed suit. "Jeez, I'm hungry"

"To be fair you turned nearly the entire hill into a meteor..." Gray sweatdropped and his stomach began to growl too.

"Yeah, it's also your fault why we can't take the train you meat head." Mirajane said and Naruto sweatdropped.

 **(Flashback)**

Naruto had used one of his mini rasenshuriken to try and take out as many Ghoul Spirit members as possible. Unfortunately a very distracting memory just decided to make its way into his brain at the time and the trajectory of his attack shifted. He missed completely and the chakra shuriken zoomed pass everyone and right towards the train tracks. After it exploded, there was now a large gap in the railroad now.

"Oops..."

 **(End Flashback)**

"Yeah well..." He paused when everyone's stomachs growled collectively.

" _I'm so gonna try to teach my self Hiraishin while I'm here."_ Naruto thought as they all continued to drag their feet back towards Magnolia.

Gray had his eyes set on Sasuke. After watching the Uchiha in action, even if it was against a bunch of fodder wizards, he knew he was very strong. Probably even stronger than the old man himself. As much as he didn't like to say it, he had to follow Natsu's footsteps on this one. _"I'm gonna make him accept me as his student!"_ He declared in his thoughts. He wanted to get stronger, that's for sure, but he also wanted to find out, what exactly made him so drawn to Sasuke. He was still trying to figure out whether or not he had met Sasuke before, but he couldn't put his finger on it at all.

Makarov was in his own thoughts as well trying to assess the two new kids he picked up to be in his guild. The way they acted with each other, it seemed like they were just an older version of Natsu and Gray. Well, with the way they went overboard in the destruction of Ghoul Spirit, they're definitely an older version of Natsu and Gray. _"I have to write enough apology letters just because of Natsu and Gray alone. I really hope they're more well behaved than those two boneheads._

" _The blonde one's already gotten on my nerves, but he's kind of funny. The other one embarrassed the red head so he's instantly in my approval book. They're interesting to say the least."_

 **About 3 hours later…**

The group of five finally returned to the guild hall after a long walk from Shirotsume to Magnolia. Everyone surrounded them trying to fish answers out of them for being away for so long after only going to the library. They explained that they went back to the place where they came out of and was instantly caught by the council. Everyone murmured about how only idiots would return to the scene of the crime in the middle of the day during an investigation.

"To be honest it wasn't one of my best ideas." Naruto said as he already sat at the counter awaiting a bowl of ramen from Lisanna.

"I agreed with him, his stupidity is starting to rub off on me..." Sasuke said as he rubbed his temple. "What was that, teme?" Nartuo questioned and the two began butting heads in the same way that Natsu and Gray would.

"Just as I thought..." Makarov said and he felt a tear trying to creep its way out of his eye but blinked it away.

"Would you two quit fighting!" Erza said as she separated them and _Crack!_ She shoved their heads away from each other so hard that she actually caused their neck to almost be disjointed.

"Now please tell us what happened." She ordered. Even though she said please, it still sounded rather forceful the way she asked them.

During that time they were with the magic council they had several questions asked of them and several tests ran on them. "The worst part wasn't even the tests, they asked us the same things over and over and over and over again as if the answer was going to change or something." Naruto cringed just remembering being in that hell hole of a place.

"They ran blood test on us, they tried to find who exactly we were and where we came from but they couldn't find any matches in their system. Then they ran us on something called the MPF, Magic Power Finder. It test a users magic power as the name says. Three entire days, of doing nothing but these tests and those questions over and over again. I'd have to agree with Naruto that it was the most annoying place I've ever been to." Sasuke explained.

"So did you find what you were looking for in the library?" Levy asked, returning to a conversation that should've taken place three days ago. The two shinobi in question nodded and Naruto pulled out the book that they acquired on their trip. They stared at the book confusingly. They thought that it was just some pop up book that some guy wrote to try and scare children. 

"It's not exactly what we're looking for but I can tell this book has something to do with it." Naruto stated as he began to open the book and revealed its first page. 'One night, the moon turned red as if it was stained with blood,' read the first page. Naruto turned to the next page but it was blank. He showed them the rest of the pages and they were all the same as the second page. 

"What is the meaning of this?" Makarov asked. Naruto shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't know. Sasuke says he can see numbers on each of the pages."  
Levy took the book from the blonde shinobi and put on her special reading glasses. But the glasses didn't even react to the book at all. 

"The wing glasses can't even pick anything up. How is that you can see what's on the page?" She asked and Sasuke frowned. He didn't really want to tell them about the sharingan yet. Even though he used it on Erza, she is the only one who has actually seen it up close. He was about to speak but Erza beat him to it. 

"Is there any way you can show us what it looks like?" Erza asked and he nodded. 

"Give me something to draw with." Sasuke said and Lisanna handed him a light pen. 

"You can use that to draw even on the air." She explained and he gave it a quick test by drawing a line in the air. 

"That's so friggin cool! They don't have things like that where we're from." Naruto said, thoroughly impressed by the technology of the Fairy Tail world. Sasuke faced the doors of the Guild hall and activated his eyes so no one could see them. He began drawing the number two the same way it was drawn in the book. It had an intricate design, almost like the inside of a clock just in the shape of a two. The guild was amazed at how well Sasuke could draw and based on pure memory because he wasn't even looking at the book. Hearing the 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' of the guild, he couldn't help but smirk a little. 

_"Photographic memory with the sharingan sure does come in handy."_ He finished up and handed the light pen back to Lisanna. They all started at the number that he drew. 

"Wow, it's really complex. This is probably the most complicated formula I've ever seen. But what could be so important that it needs to be hidden to this extent?" Makarov questioned as he analyzed every little detail on the number. 

"There's only one thing that I can think of that someone would go through this kind of trouble to cover up..." Sasuke said, gathering everyone's attention. 

"The past..." 

... 

Meanwhile, at the site of Naruto and Sasuke's origin, Siegrain took it upon himself to take a visit there. He was greeted by one of the guards and told him to fill him in on any new findings.  
"So far we have discovered two human sized crystal cocoons underneath the dirt. We suspect that this is what the suspects were in prior to the explosion." He reported. Siegrain was almost too intrigued by his statement. 

"Take me there." He ordered and the guard gracefully complied. When he got there it was just as the guard described it. Two human sized cocoon crystals that were broken at the top. 

_"They look like lacrima"_ He thought as he put his hands on it. _"Feels like lacrima. I can feel a power fading away from it. So whatever it was used for, can't be used again."_ He mused and at that moment someone wearing a lab coat approached him. 

"Siegrain-sama, I'm glad you came. I was just about submit a report to the Council. It seems that this crystal is not even made up of material that comes from this planet." 

**To be continued...**


	5. The Council's Request An S-Class Missio

**Chapter 5: The Council's Request. An S-Class Mission.**

Everyone in the guild was pondering. Pondering over what Sasuke said and how they could try to solve this mystery. 

"Whenever people go through such lengths to cover up something. It's almost always about the past or about a plan they've concocted." Sasuke said and seeing the logic in that statement everyone else agreed.  
"The only way we can figure this out is if we find who wrote this book." Erza stated. 

"I've already come up with some idea as to who it is." Sasuke started as he took the book back from Levy. 

"Look, it was written by a man named Roku Shodaim. This could be a crude way of writing 'The first six'. We know a man by the name of the sage of six paths and I believe he might be the one who wrote this book." He finished. Nobody in the guild knew who the sage of six paths was so this was all new information to them. 

"Who is the sage of six paths? Why is he important? What happened in the past that needs to be covered up? Please tell us everything you know." Erza rapidly asked. 

"Sorry even we don't really know that much about him." Naruto answered and everyone was disappointed. 

"Whoever this guy is, he must be awesome." Natsu said, thinking about the prospect of meeting this sage. 

"Even before we came here, I was wandering the world trying to uncover the past myself. If we're gonna figure out how to go home then we need to travel the world." Sasuke explained and everyone silently agreed. 

"Aw you guys are leaving already? You just joined." Lisanna asked, a little sad that the new guys just decided to leave only a few days after they joined. 

"Don't worry, we're not leaving the guild, just going on a trip." Naruto assured Lisanna. 

"We'll leave in about week or so. It's best to at least gather some money. It's probably impossible to go around completely unnoticed at this point so the best option is to try and move like a normal civilian." Sasuke said. 

"So what are we waiting for? Let's go on a job right now!" Natsu shouted and his feline partner in crime shouted out his catch phrase. "Aye!" 

"There's some time left in the day, I don't see why not." Naruto said with his trademark grin. Then as if by coincidence a green toy bird with a winder in its back flew into the guild hall carrying three envelopes in its talons. The bird constantly repeated, "Master Makarov. Master Makarov." He held his hand out to take the letters from the bird. He reset the winder on the bird and it flew back towards the magic Council. 

"Seems like magic is more applicable to things than chakra is." Sasuke mused as he watched the transpiring events. Makarov separated two of the letters and handed them to Naruto and Sasuke. 

"Here this is for you. Probably compensation for that job." He said as he opened the letter bring addressed him. 

"Well you guys wanted to go on a job? Here you go. It's a simple escort mission, but the level of difficulty is S-Class. Are you sure you're up to it?" Makarov asked. Natsu and Gray cheered, "S-Class quest!" while throwing their fist in the air. 

"Hold on who said that you two could go?" Erza immediately rained on their parade. The two wanted to argue but Naruto intervened first. 

"It'll be fine. If anything happens you can depend on us." Naruto assured her with a thumbs up. 

"I have no problem letting them go under their care. But the rules of the guild still stand. An S-Class wizard must be present on this trip." Makarov said, leaving no room for any arguments. 

"Count me out, I don't feel like going on a job right now." Mirajane said. 

"I have no problem going Master. After all..." Erza said as she used her magic to bring a sword into her hands. With quick and precise cuts, she diced her bandages into ribbons. They revealed smooth, flawless, porcelain skin. It was almost as if she had never battled Sasuke just a few days ago. The latter was a bit surprised to say the least. The only person he knew that could heal like that was Naruto. 

"To be honest, they healed two days ago. I just wanted to take it easy for a few days." She said as she requipped back into her standard outfit. The latter was a bit surprised to say the least. The only person he knew that could heal like that was Naruto. 

_"Not a single scar in sight..."_ Naruto thought as he retreated to his mindscape for a moment. 

"Oi Kurama, do you think she might be some kind of long lost Uzumaki?" He asked the monster fox. 

**"Who knows? Even if she was, why does it matter?"** Kurama responded and he looked at Kurama as if he was an idiot. 

"Are you an idiot? If she is then she doesn't belong here. Meaning that she could've been transported here too." Naruto explained and the tailed beast didn't take too kindly to the idiot comment. At least if the blonde shinobi flying into the wall was any indication. 

**"The woman only uses magic, and on top of that, don't you think she would have been looking for a way to go back herself?"**

"..." 

**"Who's calling who an idiot now?"** Kurama asked sarcastically as he glared down at Naruto.  
"Everybody is just beating on me today..." Naruto grumbled as he rubbed lump on his head. 

**"Still it's not impossible. Perhaps her parents could have been transported here but she was born here."** Kurama said and Naruto two tick marks appeared on his head. Using his best Oda anger expression he shouted, "That's basically what I said you bastard!" 

**"Just use sage mode. Even if she doesn't know how to use chakra, her reserves will be pretty high for an average human if she's really an Uzumaki."** Kurama said ignoring his comment and Naruto nodded. 

"So what's the request?" Naruto asked as he came back to reality. 

"At least close your eyes when you're talking to the fox. You make everyone think you're actually listening." Sasuke said, a little annoyed that Naruto wasn't listening. Naruto nervously chuckled and apologized for his action. 

"We gotta deliver some rich noble to an island in the south. Apparently there's huge sea monsters along those waters and they're relentless in who they attack" ( **A/N: Natsu will have motion sickness, but not at this current time. At the canonical start he will though).**

"Alright, we'll meet at the train station tomorrow morning 7 o'clock. Don't be late." Erza informed the group. With them agreeing on the time and Makarov allowing them to go, everyone decided to just go home early for a change without starting a brawl. Except for Gray. He stayed back when he heard Sasuke call to him. 

"You've look like you've been wanting to ask me something for a while now, Gray."  
Gray sighed, he should've known that someone who could beat Erza in ten seconds could pick up on his actions so quickly. Or was he acting that out of place that anyone could notice. He decided to shove those thoughts aside and came clean. 

"You seemed like the type that nothing gets by. Fine I'll just come out and ask. Will you… take me as a student?" Gray asked. He punched himself mentally for acting so shy all of a sudden. 

"Why do you want to be my student?" 

"I witnessed how strong you are and I want to be strong like you. You're the only one who can help me." Gray said with a mighty conviction. Sasuke continued to look him right in his black orbs with his stoic expression. He didn't show even a spec of fear or uncertainty. Gray reminded him of who he used to be before he got all power hungry. He was a pretty calm and collected person, at least not around Natsu from what he's seen. So he decided to test what his resolve was. 

"Why do you want strength so bad?" 

Gray clenched his fist as he began to tremble a bit. This didn't go unnoticed by Sasuke as he watched Gray carefully. It was only because Sasuke knows the kind of man he was in the past, and he really didn't want to lead someone down that path. It was just as Kakashi told him that one time, all revenge does is leave you with with pain and emptiness. 

Some nasty flashbacks ran through Gray's mind when he thought about Sasuke's question. _"Ur... Deliora... Mom... Dad_..." Gray thought of his past and when it came time to answer his question he stopped trembling. Why did he stop? He thought about all the ones that he has now. 

_"Natsu, Erza, Gramps, everyone..."  
_

"I lost everything once. I don't want that to ever happen again." He said with unwavering dedication. He certainly sounded like he wasn't going to take no for an answer. Sasuke smirked inwardly, his hunch was right. 

"You sound like a loser that I knew a long time ago." Sasuke said in a reminiscent voice. 

"Fine, I'll accept you. But I warn you..." He started as he began to walk towards the guild infirmary where Naruto was currently. They could've rented an apartment, but they're gonna leave soon so they might as well save the money they earn. Especially with this S-Class quest that they're about to go on was going to pay handsomly. 

"I'll be so harsh that you might die. Be prepared." Sasuke warned and Gray actually sweat just a tiny bit. But his dedication remained unblemished as he responded in a cool demeanor as he also made his way out of the guild. "Will do." 

... 

The next morning everyone met at the train station as promised. 

"Uhhhh, does she really need all of that luggage?" Naruto asked as he saw Erza approaching with a mountain of suitcases. 

"Something about her dimensional space can't hold all of her stuff." Gray answered nonchalantly as his attention was focused elsewhere. Meanwhile Sasuke was just in utter shock by Gray's statement. **(A/N: The same as Law's shocked face in OP)**

_"I thought dimensional space is supposed to be infinite..."_ He thought as a bead of sweat dripped down his temple. Natsu was jumping for joy. He was super excited that Makarov let him participate in this S-CLASS quest. However, he knew this would be a one-time deal so he figured he should show off as much as possible and then maybe Makarov would make him an S-Class wizard. At least that's what his flying blue partner said. 

"Good to see everyone is here on time." Erza greeted everyone with a smile. 

"Let's be quick about this, I wanna start training as early as possible." Gray said, pretty much sounding exactly like Sasuke a few days ago as he boarded the train. 

"I really hope he doesn't turn into you." Naruto whispered to Sasuke. 

"I agreed to take him under my wing so that doesn't happen." He answered the former as they followed Gray's example and boarded the train.

…

"This mission was meant for Naruto and Sasuke alone!" The chairman's voice boomed in the court room.

"It's Master Makarov's orders that an S-Class wizard be present at an S-Class quest taken by the guild. It is out of our reach." Erza said in a monotone and the old man began rubbing his forehead.

"Oh relax chairman. A couple of more people wouldn't hurt. Besides, the more people there are, the higher chance of success." Siegrain said with his usual mischievous smile.

"Siegrain! The client specifically requested Naruto and Sasuke, not Fairy Tail! Do you know what could happen to our reputation when we don't deliver what is asked of us?" The chairman asked in such an aggressive tone that it actually frightened some of the other council members.

"If it becomes an issue, we could always just deem them honorary members of the ten wizard saints. Surely anyone of that rank is considered S-Class. If anything happens I will take the blame personally." Siegrain responded as his gaze shifted towards Erza. The latter always feels uneasy around said council member. Whether it was his smile that screamed "I'M UP TO SOMETHING!" or maybe there was a past between them that needed to be uncovered. Heck, maybe that was just her ex-boyfriend or something. Who knows?

The chairman sighed as he asked Ultear to debrief them on their job request. She stood up and cleared her throat.

"Your job is to escort a princess back down to an island South of Fiore. While under normal cirumstances this would be considered a C-class or lower mission, the sea around that area is filled with gigantic sea creatures that are relentless in the attacking of passing ships. Since the current there is also non-existent, the trip will take longer than traveling anywhere else. Also, beware of pirates. The princess and her escorts have also asked us to keep their identity confidential until she can confirm that the people she has requested has met her standards." Ultear read and sat back down. Yajima told the guards to let the clients in and they complied.

" _She requested us specifically, and refuses to reveal her identity until she can confirm that we meet her standards? What standards is she talking about?"_ Sasuke thought as doors slowly opened up. Smoke enveloped the bottom of the floor as the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees. In walked a young girl, around the same age as Erza and about average height. She had waist length, pale white hair with a tint of blue in it, almost like a diamond color. She had a round face and pale skin. She wore a form fitting, white long sleeved shirt with thin black vertical stripes lining the entire garment. She wore black pants with a black belt that a round, porcelain buckle. Accompanied by a pair of white boots that looked as soft as a pillow. She was adorned by a white coat that she wore in a cape like fashion and extended all the way to her ankles. The cuffs had white fur on them and black shoulder pads similar to that of a pirate. She also Her most noticeable feature was the bandages that were wrapped around her eyes and earrings that resembles the yasaka beads that were usually around the neck of the sage of six paths made of solid gold. Her white coat swayed elegantly from whatever breeze caused its movement. Team Fairy Tail took in her form and all thought that she didn't look the way they thought she would. 

"She dresses modestly, but extravagant at the same time." Erza said. 

"Definitely not your average princess. I can say that much." Gray added. 

"That was the most badass entrance I've ever seen a princess have!" Naruto and Natsu both said at the same time as they had stars in their eyes admiring her. Sasuke wordlessly watched her, taking in the bandages over her eyes as some kind of clue as to why she wanted her identity to be kept secret. The fact that she requested himself and Naruto specifically, even though they have only been here for a few days makes it even more suspicious. 

"Lilian-sama, these are the ones that you have requested." The Chairman greeted and she motioned for him to stop speaking. 

"Please, just call me Lili, Mr. Chairman. Even though I can't see them, I know that they're there." She answered before turning to their direction and bowed her head. 

"It's quite an honor to meet you, Naruto-sama, Sasuke-sama." She greeted respectfully.

"Hey no need to bow your head to us. We're just your average guys." Naruto said as he rubbed his head bashfully. She lifted her head and focused towards the other three wizards and Happy. 

"Who is she?" She asked and it made the three wizards feel a bit uneasy. 

"She can't see me but it feels like she's staring right into my soul." Erza said in a low voice so that only they could hear. 

"No kidding..." Natsu and Gray muttered. 

"My name is Erza Scarlet and this is Natsu, Gray, and Happy. It's a pleasure to meet you." She said as she bowed gracefully. She noticed that Gray and Natsu didn't bow along with her so she forcefully pushed their heads down, much to their dismay. 

"The pleasure is mine. Now shall we get going?" She responded as she turned to head for the exit but immediately bumped into the door head first. 

"Lilian-sama you really must use your walking stick..." one of her attendants said as he placed said object in her hand. 

"Oh thank you." As she began to walk out, slowly but surely. 

"That was kind of lame..." Natsu deadpanned as the rest of them began to follow her. 

**... (Harbour in southern Fiore)**

The train ride went pretty smoothly, well, with the exception of Natsu and Gray's occasional fights. Heck, even Naruto and Sasuke got into a little dispute over some childish things as well just as they did in the old days. Sasuke was far from childish in this regard but whenever Naruto is around, something makes him want to resort immature name calling. Also, there was one time when Gray took his stripping habit a little too far and stripped right in front of poor Lili. How could she be affected if her eyes are bandaged up you ask? Gray unconsciously tossed a delicate garment and unfortunately it landed right on the poor girl's face.

"Excuse me, may I ask you what happened to your eyes?" Erza asked Lili. 

"They were injured in battle, so they'll take about a week or so to fully recover. Normally, I could get home by myself, but since I have this disability now I can't really do much." She answered with a smile while "looking" directly at Erza.

"Well after what happened on the train I'm kind of glad I can't see right now…" She said as she and her fellow female sweatdropped at the thought.

"Please forgive him. His habit is very… strange." Gray had turned away his head in embarrassment

"I thought he was just a pervert, when I go home I have to really wash my face with the best of soaps."

"OI!" Gray protested and Natsu was just dying of laughter at this point.

"Jeez you looked like such an idiot." He continued to laugh and he just "happened" to slip on a small sheet of ice. Big enough to capture his whole foot, but small enough to remain unseen.

"Who looks like an idiot?" Gray asked as Natsu got back up with lightning speed and they began butting heads as they walked.

"Oh so we're pulling cheap shots now are we?!" He yelled but Erza made sure that she put an end to that argument before they get the whole harbor caught up in their nonsense.

"Can you two stop fighting for just one day?! I swear if you mess anything up on this ship… I'll have your heads!" Erza threatened, no promised. Natsu and Gray shrieked in fear begging Erza not to kill them where they stand.

"Jeez it's everyday with you two…'' Erza sighed as her attention was drawn back to the young lady they were escorting. 

"I didn't think you were a fighter. You don't really look mean and scary like Erza." Happy said as he flew up next to her. She chuckled a little bit and said, "Erza-san doesn't sound like she's scary."

"Still, your sensory skills are pretty decent if you could tell who we were and how many of us there were without being able to see anything." Sasuke slightly praised causing the girl to blush a little bit. 

"It's an honor to be praised by you Sasuke-sama." Lilian said and once again Sasuke was suspicious. Sure it wasn't the first time someone has addressed him with that honorific but she spoke to him as if she knows him. They stopped in front of a ship, it was a smaller caravel class ship. The figure head was that of a black falcon with red lining on its ears. The ship had a dark gray hull with white railings. Everyone looked up at the ship and admired its handiwork. 

"This has to be the coolest ship I've ever seen!" Naruto yelled in excitement as he looked up at the ship. 

"Isn't this ship awesome Happy?" Natsu asked his furry little friend as he placed his hand on the ship. 

"Aye! I've never been out to sea before!" He answered as he flew up and around the figure head. 

"This ship can surely fit all of us. About how long will the travel be?" Erza asked as one of Lillian's attendants dropped a plank out for everyone to walk on. 

"About a week. The currents should be decent around this time of year." She said as she began to board the ship with the help of one of her attendants. Erza following with her gigantic pile of luggage. She must have monstrous strength to be able to pull that with such ease.

After doing a check of the food supply and other basic needs for the journey, Erza, the self proclaimed leader of the operation decided that it was time to set sail. Naruto hoisted the anchor, Gray and Natsu unfurled the sails. Spinning the steering wheel about 90 degrees to the right, it was time for their newest adventure to begin. 

"Set sail!" Natsu shouted at the top of his lungs. Happy flew next to him and took a set on his shoulder. 

"I can already feel the adventures coming along. We should go out to sea more often." Happy said and Natsu nodded. 

"I'd hate it if I couldn't enjoy setting sail." 

They sailed for a bit longer and it was just about time for lunch. One of Lili's attendants prepared quite the feast for lunch consisting of a lot of meat. The other one was going to help Lili eat but she waved him off. 

"I don't need to be able to see to eat meat." She said as she grabbed one of the larger piece of meat and began chewing from it like a pirate. Everyone except for Natsu and Naruto who were too busy stuffing their faces to even care about what she was doing sweatdropped at how abnormal her behavior was for a supposed princess. As the food began to slowly diminish, Lili decided that this would be a good time to tell them more information about the request. 

"I bet you guys are wondering why I requested you two specifically." She said as she "focused" on the two shinobi. 

"Yes, some more information about what exactly we're dealing with would be helpful." Erza said. 

"I'll tell you this much for now. And you'll learn more once we've reached our destination." She said and Sasuke raised an eyebrow. 

"What exactly are you going to tell us?" He asked. 

"My name." She answered and even everyone focused on her. Even Natsu paused his feast for a moment. 

"Your name? I thought your name was Lilian" Naruto asked. 

"Yes. My name is Lilian. Lilian Ōtsutsuki"

 **Next Time: Shocking Reveal! The True Nature of the Request!**


	6. The True Nature of the Request!

**Chapter 6: Shocking Reveal! The True Nature of the Request.**

 **Please See A/N at the end of chapter. Appreciate it.**

Naruto and Sasuke hopped out of their chair and into a battle position. Naruto's fists glowed an orange color and Sasuke activated his rinnegan and gripped his sword sliding it out the sheath just a little bit. The wizards were so confused as they did double takes on the two shinobi and Lili. Erza got up and streched her arms out in an attempt to keep everyone separated. However she didn't drop her guard for even one second. She knew that if one person made the wrong move things could get really ugly. 

"Now just hold on a second, let's settle this in a calm manner." Erza said trying to calm the two shinobi down. 

"You wouldn't understand. You've never seen the power of an Otsutsuki clan member before." Naruto said as he didn't take his eyes off her for even a second. 

"You. What is your connection to Kaguya?" Sasuke demanded in answer out of her. This entire time she didn't even budge an inch but she couldn't deny the drop of sweat that dripped down her forehead. She knew that it she moved even an inch in the wrong direction her life would end. The tension between them was so thick you could cut it with a knife. 

"Naruto-sama, Sasuke-sama. I have no intention of being your enemy. As far as my connection with Kaguya-sama, well... It's the whole reason why we're here." She answered in a very respectful tone with hopes of making them relax a little. But to no avail, Naruto clenched his fist tighter and Sasuke continued to glare at her. 

"The reason why we're here? I thought we're here to take a visually impaired princess back home safe and sound." Gray said and all eyes fell on Lilian. 

"That part is still true. But I told you that my eyes got injured in a battle but that wasn't exactly true." She said and Erza frowned a little. 

"Why did you lie to us?" She asked. 

"I didn't want anyone to pick up on the information I'm about to tell you. Even though I requested this from them, the Council does not trust me simply because I'm not from this continent. And the fact that I requested potential criminals didn't exactly help that either." Lilian answered and Erza understood the logic in that and decided not to say anything further. Everybody remained silent as they waited for Lilian to explain herself. 

"I came to this continent because I have a destiny to fulfill." Lili said in a stoic manner. Naruto raised his eyebrow. He was intrigued because the last person to talk about destiny in such a tone was Neji and he changed long ago. 

"I'm supposed to deliver a message to two special individuals. Those two are Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha." She continued. Naruto and Sasuke didn't lower their guard at all. On the contrary they actually became more cautious. 

"What kind of message are we talking here?" The former asked and Lili reached into her pocket and pulled out a pure black scroll and rolled it towards Erza. The latter picked it up and opened it. 

_I have had a vision. A vision of those who once saved the world, will plant the seeds that will destroy it_ _._ _History will repeat itself and the battle will restart._ _The ones who maintained peace, will be the harbingers of war._ _No matter where they go, they will follow._ _I, Zaidan deliver this final message to the ones called 'children of prophecy'._ _Beware of the clan of origin_ _s_ _._ She read and everyone had either a confused or thoughtful look.

"Who the heck is Zaidan and how does he know who these people are? Why didn't he say who exactly they were? How does he know who we are? Agh I'm so confused right now!" Naruto said as he nearly ripped out his hair in frustration. 

"Relax, I'm sure that Lili has more to explain. Don't you?" Sasuke asked in a kind of threatening tone that made Lili swallow a lump in her throat. 

"T-there is more but we have to wait until we get to our destination to fully explain everything you want to know." She answered. It would be wrong to say that the two shinobi had calmed down, they just weren't directing any hostile intent towards Lili. If anyone calmed down it certainly was her. Upon first sight Naruto and Sasuke didn't seem that intimidating, but when you've got their attention... Then you can talk about presence. Meanwhile black smoke began to fill the room and everyone turned to see where it was coming from. 

"Um guys... I think Natsu's brain is broken guys." Happy said and Natsu sat there with the most confused expression he's probably ever held. 

"I'm confused too and all but Natsu took this to a whole 'nother level." Gray said sweatdropping along with everyone. 

"Natsu be careful, you might hurt yourself..." Erza said almost unwillingly in embarrassment of her long time friend. As she said that his head immediately stopped smoking. 

"Phew, thinking is pretty tough. The smoke is pretty cool though." Natsu said as he took another bite of food Everyone just sighed and shook their heads. 

"He's hopeless. He's lucky he has me around to take care of him" Happy said in an older brotherly manner. 

"Wait... Anyone hear that?" Erza asked, putting her gauntlet covered hand to her ear. There was subtle humming noise coming from under the ship. 

"It's about time for the dangerous part of this trip to begin. In these parts where the sea starts to get a little foggy, sea monsters will attack almost any ship passing by." Lili said. 

"Oh yeah now I'm all fired up! Is there one near us right now?" Natsu asked and Lili shushed everyone lifted her hand to her ear like Erza did before. The humming sound became deeper and louder. 

"Sounds like elephant whale." She said and suddenly the ship rocked violently. 

"Everybody, outside! Now!" Erza ordered and everyone ran out. Lili was right, there was a whale at least twice as big as the ship they were on. 

"Woah that thing is gigantic!" Gray said as he took in its form. It was a whale that had a round face like an orca. It's skin was gray and very wrinkly similar to that of an elephant. 

"It's got the name from the two tusks it has on its face. Be careful, they're harder than steel." Lili informed them.  
"Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!" Natsu shouted as he led the charge against the beast hurling a giant fireball towards the behemoth. A cloud of dust formed but with its tough skin the attack barely did any damage at all. It charged towards the boat only to be blocked by a thick wall of ice. 

"Go! Somebody finish it while you have the chance." Gray shouted but unfortunately his ice was too weak to hold against a powerful creature like that. His magic certainly caught the attention of Sasuke, he never imagined that Gray would use ice magic. But then again the way he fights with Natsu it makes a lot of sense. Gray's ice wall completely shattered and the monster continued to charge through. However it was then halted by four orange chakra arms grabbing its tusks and holding it back.

"Go for it Natsu!" Naruto ordered. 

"Aim for the center of its head! That's its weak spot!" Lili said and Natsu jumped down towards the monster. He cocked his fist all the way back and coated it with fire.  
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" He declared his attack as he placed that fist right in the spot that Lili told them about. The whale didn't even get a chance to bellow in pain. In that one punch Natsu used as much strength as he could and knocked that animal out cold. However, his impulsive behavior made him forget about one thing... 

The vast ocean was right beneath him. 

Luckily for him he was caught by a purple arm made entirely of chakra.  
"That monster was awesome! I wanna fight another one like those!" Natsu said excitedly. 

"There'll be plenty more, I'll tell you that. But the one we need to avoid is the Leviathan." Lili warned and the attention was one again drawn towards her. 

"The Leviathan? I feel like I've heard that somewhere before." Erza mused. 

"You probably have. It's listed in most guilds as a SS-Class quest. It's got a bounty of about $40,000,000 Jewell. Nobody has ever seen it face to face and lived to tell the tale." Lili said and Natsu had stars on his eyes. 

"Oooh I wanna see it now. Let's see it. I wanna fight it!" Natsu bounced around like a child who's parent just told them about a candy store they were going to. 

"Absolutely not." Erza said and Natsu pouted. 

"Come on, we took care of whale thingy pretty easily, I don't see why we can't." Natsu whined. 

"Erza-san is right. The only ones here strong enough to kill it are Naruto-sama and Sasuke-sama." 

"What exactly is a Leviathan and how do we avoid it?" Gray asked. She turned and said, 

"Well with the course we're on now, we should be able to avoid it without much of a problem. We should reach the Leviathan's territory within three days but that does not mean that we are safe. The Leviathan can show up at anytime and there are still many others to deal with." Lili warned them and they nodded their heads 

"By any chance what're the chances of running into the Leviathan when it's not in its territory?" Sasuke asked. 

"It's roughly about 10%." Izumo said. **(A/N: Her servants names are going to be Izumo and Kotetsu. It's not like Naruto remembers them anyway lol)**

"What is a Leviathan anyway?" Happy asked. 

"It's a gigantic mythical creature. I hear it's the closest thing to being a dragon on earth." Kotetsu answered. 

"A dragon? Now I really wanna meet it. Maybe it might know where Igneel ran off to." Natsu said. 

"Why on earth would a creature that lives in the ocean know where a creature that lives in the sky went? Idiot." Gray asked and the two once again resumed their routine habit. 

"What'd you call me, Ice Princess?" 

"You better watch your mouth dragon boy." 

"Would you two stop fighting! And put some clothes on Gray!" 

"Anyway... if we do run into this creature what should we do?" Sasuke asked, ignoring the shrieks of pain coming from his left. 

"Honestly, escaping it in this ship is impossible. If I were at my full strength then it would be. Our only option is to fight it if we somehow run into it. Even still, to fight it without having the ship getting capsized is also nearly impossible. Our best bet is to avoid it completely." Lili answered. 

"I hope we can avoid it. If we fight it we're gonna have to kill it. And if people find out about that, the Council's gonna be down our throats..." Naruto said with annoyance. Soon there was the ship was shaking violently again and out of the water came a giant eel, about the same size as the elephant whale. The huge splash of water caused everyone's clothes to be soaked. Erza was especially upset because it interrupted her scolding of the fire and ice wizard. 

"How dare you interrupt my lesson! I'll have your head!" Erza declared as she pulled out a sword. As a way to say "F you", the giant eel spewed even more water on to the red head wizard. A water gun so powerful that it pushed Erza against the wall of the ship. Natsu and Gray couldn't help but snicker at the Eel's action.  
 _"Sweet, sweet karma"_ they thought. The Eel had a smug grin on its after its onslaught of water on the armored wizard. However... 

The eel didn't know who it was messing with. 

Erza requipped into her black wing armor and moved to annihilate the gargantuan eel. Slicing it up to bits and pieces within the matter of moments. She landed back on the ship and changed back to her regular clothing. The moment she did the eel broke into several bite sized pieces. This installed the fear back into Natsu and Gray's hearts. She mercilessly diced up that eel. But then again, the eel has it coming. 

Don't mess with Titania, the queen of the fairies. 

... 

After a few more days of battling giant sea creatures the day of promise finally came. Everyone was tired of fighting sea monsters and hoped to land soon. While there were only about two-three days away from land, this was the most critical part of the entire trip. 

"We're almost there, just two more days you guys. But don't let your guard down. This is the most dangerous part of the trip. It's sink or swim." Lili warned the crew but meanwhile everyone was pretty much exhausted. Day and night they were battling monster after monster after monster. 

"I really don't want to run into any more monsters, let alone the Leviathan." Naruto said with a tired voice. The crew responded with a bunch of groans of agreement and Lili sweatdropped. Natsu seemed to be playing with some blue string, muttering to himself about keeping it as a souvenir. 

"Well it's fine as long as we don't brush by any of the receptors on its body." She said. 

"Umm just what would those receptors be?" Happy asked kind of nervously. 

"They're like large blue strands of hair that stick out from the sides of fin like rocks." Lili asked. 

"You mean like the ones that Natsu is touching right now?..." Gray asked as everyone turned towards Natsu holding the said blue hair in his hand that he plucked from the fin like rock. 

"YOU IDIOT!" Everyone yelled at the pink haired wizard. Soon after there was an eerie silence as everyone anticipated the reveal of this great creature. The few seconds they waited was possibly the longest they ever waited for a monster to reveal themselves. Suddenly the water beneath them began to ripple and the boat shook violently. 

"Kotetsu lead me to the bottom of the ship!" Lili ordered and he complied with swiftness. Once at the bottom, there was a door that opened up to the back of the ship. There was little time as the water continued to rise at a rapid pace. Lili's hands glowed a light blue color and she place her hand in the water. 

_"Come on I don't need much, just please let this work!"_ She thought as she began to exert more and more power. Kotetsu saw the blue glow coming from her bandages and immediately expressed his concern. 

"My lady, you shouldn't exert yourself so much. Your eyes haven't completely healed yet you could go blind permanently if you try to move an object as large as this." 

"It's better than dying after coming to this point. Besides, more than my eyes are at stake here." She responded. Naruto and Sasuke felt the discharge of her chakra and immediately became tense. 

"What is that chakra? It's powerful." Sasuke asked. 

"Everybody grab on to something quick!" Izumo warned as he held on toa the railing of the ship. Everybody rushed towards the railing same as Izumo. 

"What are we holding on for?!" Natsu asked as the water rose to the point where the ship's elevation began to rise. 

"Lady Lilian is going to launch the ship!" Izumo warned and before you know it Lili shouted at the top of her lungs as she exerted her power. The ship launched several feet in the air and across quite the distance, just barely dodging the head of the Leviathan that emerged from the water. The Leviathan's head was several times larger than the ship! If you had to estimate, the Leviathan is about the size of a small town if not bigger. The crew held on to the ship as tight as they could as the looked at the gigantic creature they were face to face with. 

_Splash_ _!_

The ship landed with a huge splash and although they were away from the head of the beast, they were by no means in the clear. 

"Natsu, I swear... if we survive this I'll kill you myself." Gray threatened as he looked up at the massive beast. 

"So this is the beast with a 40,000,000 Jewell bounty on its head." Erza said as she marveled at the incredible creature in front of her. 

"We can't delay. If we let a battle against this thing go too long we'll be swimming home. Let's go all out from the beginning!" Sasuke said as his rinnegan activated and a purple aura began to surround him. 

"It's certainly been a while since we last transformed. I hope you aren't rusty Kurama." Naruto smirked as he began to emit an orange colored aura himself.  
 **"Heh, speak for yourself runt.** **I'm always ready to go.** **"** Kurama smirked right back as Naruto jumped over the railing landed on the salty sea. 

"In the mean time I suggest you get as far away from her as possible. If you stay you'll die." Sasuke ordered as he followed Naruto off the ship 

"How the heck are they gonna beat something like that?" Gray asked, in utter disbelief. 

"We should listen to what he says. If the ship capsizes in the middle of the battle no one is going to survive." Erza said as she went to grab the helm of ship.  
"No. We're staying right here." Natsu said. 

"Are you kidding me?! Didn't you hear what he said? If we stay here we're all gonna die!" Gray argued as he grabbed the Natsu's vest. He just sat there, his expression not changing in the slightest. 

"Yeah Natsu! I don't wanna stay here at all!" Happy said as he trembled in fear of the largest creature in the ocean. 

"IF THEY CAN'T SAVE US FROM THIS SITUATION THEN WAS THE POINT OF ASKING THEM TO TRAIN US?!" Natsu asked and the grip Gray had on his clothing loosened a bit. 

"We asked them to train us because we believe they are strong. If we run, we don't have any real faith in their strength. That's how I feel." Natsu said and Gray trembled a bit but he smiled. 

"Heh, I can't believe I let this guy make me look like a coward. Not only am I staying. I'm gonna fight too!" Gray exclaimed as he jumped off the side of the ship to follow Naruto and Sasuke. Natsu grinned and followed suit. 

"They're so reckless! We have no choice but to stay now." Erza said and Kotetsu carried an unconscious Lilian in his arms, bridal style. 

"Is she alright?" Erza asked with concern in her voice. Despite knowing her for only a few days, the two actually became good friends. 

"She used a pretty taxing move while she wasn't even fully healed. Under normal circumstances she would have been able to launch the ship with ease." He answered. Erza nodded as she turned towards the Leviathan. 

_"Whatever happens. I'm glad I came on this job."_

... 

Naruto and Sasuke stood on the ocean's surface preparing themselves for their first major battle in this new world. Suddenly they heard a graceful landing and an ungraceful splash occur behind them. They turned to see what it was and there you had Gray standing on a small sheet of ice and Natsu struggling to make his way to the ice sheet. 

"Why don't people ever listen to me?..." Sasuke asked with a scowl on his face. 

"We don't wanna stand around! We wanna fight too!" Natsu argued and Naruto just sighed.

 **(Play OST: Heaven Shaking Event**

"Just try to keep up." Naruto said as a large amount of power began to exert from his body. Sasuke followed suit by emitting the same energy he needs for his perfect Susanoo. Nine orange chakra Tails emerged from Naruto as he made his transition from human to tailed beast. Before you knew it, the nine tailed fox was standing there in all its glory. Natsu and Gray were flabbergasted when they found themselves inside the Chakra of the strongest tailed beast. 

"Woah, I feel power coursing through me like never before!" Natsu said as his body erupted into flames. 

"I've never felt so strong. Just what kind of power is this?" Gray thought flexing his muscles. The Leviathan decided not to wait any longer as it began to charge up a beam in its mouth similar to the way a tailed beast bomb is made. 

It took the energy in to its mouth and let it go all at once and a gigantic beam of water came at them at lightning speed. But to no avail, no damage was done to the quartet as a purple sword deflected the beam towards the sky and the sheer shockwave of the blast caused high tides on the water. 

"That was kind of close don't you think?" Naruto asked sarcastically and Sasuke ignored him. The once orange nine tailed fox now had a purple samurai armor supporting it. 

"We're going to kill it in one shot. Gray, use your ice to freeze the ocean as deep as possible. Restrict its movement even for just a second. Natsu use your flames and Naruto use your power to further the strength of my sword. We won't get a second chance." Sasuke ordered and everyone nodded in compliance. 

Gray focused all of his energy into freezing the ocean. He froze it about forty meters deep and as far as they eye could see. Barely staying conscious he tried to maintain the beast while the other three proceeded to do their job. 

Naruto applied much of his chakra to Sasuke and it caused the sword to double in size. The Leviathan squirmed trying break free of Gray's ice and succeeded without much effort. But it was one second too late as the gargantuan sword came down coated in black and red flames from Natsu and the amaterasu. Once it made contact with the Leviathan's skull, Gray collapsed unable to keep the ocean frozen any longer and the ice melted. The swing of the sword managed to split the ocean down the middle itself. Erza and the other on the ship couldn't do anything but marvel at the power they were witnessing. But the most shocking thing wasn't even the defeat of the Leviathan.

 **(End OST)**

The sword split it's head and as soon as that happened... 

_Poof!..._

The Leviathan disappeared in a cloud of white smoke and caused a high tide to occur on the sea surface.

"Huh? I don't get it..."

"Are sea monsters supposed to disappear like that?" 

"What?! Don't tell me!" Naruto exclaimed as his eyelids nearly ripped with the strain of how shocked he was. 

"The Leviathan... was a summoning animal?!" 

**To be continued.  
**

 **Chapter 7: Finally a chance to rest! Arriving at Lilian's home!**

 **A/N: Ugh I'm so sorry for the long wait. Between school and other responsibilities I barely had time to do any writing. Besides that I also sort of had writer's block. I know what I want to write, it's just hard for me to tell it in story format. Thank all of you who always put up with me and I hope you continue to put up with me. Review, PM me, let me know what you guys think of this chapter. I don't think it's my best chapter but I certainly hope I made things interesting for the next one.**


	7. Finally a chance to rest! Arriving

**Chapter 7**

 **A/N: Oh Jeez I don't even know how you guys even put up with me. I don't even deserve any readers or reviews with the way I am unable to stay consistent with uploading chapters. With school, and technical issues, writer's block and being obsessed with Pokemon Go, time just flew by so fast that it's been two months since I uploaded a chapter. Please forgive me and continue to put up with me, especially with the way I write,** **you know all the cliff hangers I write. So I tried to explain as much as possible in this chapter to clear up some things but not too much so that there isn't any mystery. So please read and continue to review, if you haven't already given up on me at least.**

"Who could've possibly summoned such a gigantic creature?" Sasuke asked. 

"It had to have been a boss summon, there's no way something that big couldn't be a boss summon." Naruto said. 

"What are you guys talking about? Sure it was strange, but we should be happy that we beat it." Gray said. The two shinobi proceeded to give them a quick explanation on what summoning animals were and what they meant to shinobi. Everything from the summoning contract to the variety of summons that you could own at once. They made sure not to show either of them (especially Natsu) the hand signs of the technique considering what they had to do because of Natsu's carelessness. And they were NOT about to go on a wild goose chase to find him if he ever got himself teleported to some far away secluded land. 

"Well at least with the Leviathan out of the way we can have smooth sailing to our destination." Naruto said with a content smile. Sasuke hauled Gray's unconscious body over his shoulder and made his way towards the ship. 

"Hey Natsu..." Naruto said in a deep serious tone. Natsu looked at him, his eyes being covered by his blonde hair. 

"Did you see the way the ship flew? That was like the coolest thing ever y'know!" Naruto asked excitedly as he acted out the flying ship as best as he could. 

"I know right! I've gotta ask her to teach me that trick!" Natsu said with glimmering stars in his eyes. They followed Sasuke and climbed up the rope ladder to the deck of the ship. Erza met them at the top of the rope ladder with a rather impressed smile. 

"That was an incredible show of strength, it's no wonder the Council is concerned about you." She said and Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. 

"Well, you know..." He said bashfully, then he looked around and saw that there a few people missing. 

"Where's Lilian?" Naruto asked 

"Kotetsu is taking care of her in the girls room. Moving the ship in her condition took more of a toll on her than she thought. And Gray?" Erza answered as she turned to Sasuke who carrying his lifeless body. 

"Just exhaustion. Even with a power boost from Naruto that's all he could manage." Sasuke said analytically as he walked to the men's quarters. 

"That's still an impressive feat don't you think?" Erza asked and Sasuke smirked, replying with his usual grunt. 

"How much longer until we get to where we need to go?" Naruto asked. 

"Not much longer, maybe another two or three days. You pull up the anchor. Natsu, you unfurl the sails. I'll turn the ship to port and get us on the right course." Erza ordered as the psuedo-captain of the ship. To which Naruto and Natsu responded in a salute and a firm "Yes ma'am!"  
They immediately got to work and thus they were back on track to the islands to the south. Nothing too eventful happened along the course of the day. Gray had woken up from his nap to hear Erza scolding Natsu about not stealing food from others, only to calmly go back sleep. 

"I don't have the energy to deal with that right now..." 

The next morning, everyone woke up, more so the group from Fairy Tail since Lilian was still recovering. Erza was first to step out on deck and her eyes widened at the view, or what lack there of. The entire ship and the sea was engulfed in a thick mist. One could barely see out in front of them in this mist. 

"There wasn't a cloud in sight yesterday, why is here such a drastic change?" Erza asked herself out loud as she put her hand on her forehead to act as a visor for her eyes. Nothing but mist in sight. The door creaked open behind her and it was Kotetsu who came through yawning.  
He smiled and said, "We're finally in our island's climate and in no time flat." 

"Is it like this all year round?" Erza asked and he nodded. 

"Woah look at all this fog! I haven't been in fog like this since the Sea Route of Silence." Naruto said as he and Sasuke came out of the men's quarters. 

"So is it just a straight shot to the island now?" Sasuke asked and Kotetsu nodded. 

"We would arrive by morning." He said as he went inside the galley to prepare breakfast for everyone. 

"How's Gray?" Erza asked. 

"He's just being lazy. And what about Lili?" Naruto answered. 

"She's doing just fine, she should be ready to take off her bandages tomorrow night." Erza said with a smile and Naruto grinned. 

"That's great, I've been waiting to see what she's been hiding under there." He said. 

"With that stunt she pulled with the ship, I'm expecting some kind of rinnegan." Sasuke commented. 

"Well, we'll find out tomorrow but for now. Let's eat!" Naruto said as he stormed into the galley. Suddenly another door burst open and Natsu ran out screaming, "Did someone just say let's eat?!" He ran into the galley in a similar fashion as Naruto. Erza could've help but chuckle at their actions. 

"Thpey're like two peas in pod." She said. 

"Yeah they're both idiots." Sasuke said as he leaned over the railing staring off into the mist. 

"You and Gray aren't that far off from each other either." Erza chuckled as she leaned over the railing to state out into the mist as well. Sasuke watched her from the corner of his eye as her beautiful, one-of-a-kind scarlet red hair swayed in the wind. He continued to wordlessly stare in an aloof manner for a few more silent moments until she decided to break this silence. 

"Can I ask you something?" Erza asked nervously as her expression became more or less downcast. Sasuke went back to watching what little amount of ocean there was and responded with a grunt. 

"When you said that my eyes were the same as his, what do you mean by that?" **(A/N: I changed that line to his because** **I realized that** **it was mistake on the initial post.)**  
He thought back to when his duel with her over about two weeks ago. He had her at his mercy with little trouble and as he took in the look in her eyes he thought. 

"I was talking about my elder brother. As far as what I mean, I can't answer that." He answered indifferently. Erza took this as a sign that he wouldn't expand on the subject and just left it alone for now. Their journey was close to being over and who knows what kind of dangers would be ahead of them. She had to focus on the task at hand, she thought. _"Just because the Leviathan is gone doesn't mean that we're 100% safe."_

... 

The next day, the shore was finally within site.  
"Land Ho!" Natsu and Happy both cheered loudly, jumping in celebration.

"I can't wait to finally set foot on land. Feels like we've been out here forever." Gray said. 

"Returning home after a long mission is the best." Lilian said trying to feel as much of the cool mist as possible. 

"Today's also the day you can take your bandages off milady." Kotetsu said smiling. 

"Yeah we'll finally get to see what you're hiding under there since you never take them off." Naruto said and Lili giggled. 

"Don't worry you'll see soon enough." She said. 

"Well it's not like she's supposed to take them off." Erza said. 

"I just want to see what she has to do with the Otsutsuki." Sasuke said. 

"Oh I almost forgot about that. Where are we going after this anyway?" Naruto asked. 

"I thought we could relax for a while before that but I don't think Sasuke can wait any longer." Lilian said. 

"Who knows what could be happening in the Leaf right now. We are shinobi, disaster can strike at anytime." Sasuke said as the ship finally reached the dock. Gray lowered the anchor while Izumo and Kotetsu tied up the sails. The rest of the group hopped off of the ship while Erza stayed behind to help the blind princess off the ship. 

Lilian's eyes were covered by her hair and smile had just a touch of sadness to it. And with a low voice she said,  
"I don't think you'll have to worry about the Leaf Village..." 

Sasuke turned to her, hearing her mumble something. 

"What did you say?" He asked. 

"How could all of you boys be so inconsiderate to just ignore a blind princess that needs help?!" Erza interrupted the potential unstable situation that answering that question could possibly lead to. Cueing the arguments between Natsu and Gray about who is at fault for leaving the girl by herself. 

Meanwhile, a crowd of people began to gather up around the dock and from the look of it their interest was in the boat that they had arrived in. They saw Erza who giving a piggyback ride to Lilian in order to come down the rope ladder. Erza would've just jumped under normal circumstances but she didn't want to risk it with Lilian on her back. Once they noticed Lilian's distinctively colored hair the crowd erupted into cheers. 

"Lilian-sama has returned!" They began to rush toowards the young girl but was stopped in their tracks when Naruto and Sasuke slid in their way. 

"Hold on now, we can't let you all just surround her, the injured need peace and quiet on order to recover." Naruto said. 

"You mean Lilian-sama is injured?!" One citizen questioned. 

"What have you done to Lilian-sama, you fiends!" Another shouted angrily.

"Hey we didn't do anything to her, we made sure she got back here safe and sound y'know!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Wait. Isn't that the legends themselves, Naruto and Sasuke?!" One villager questioned and everyone took a good look at them. Once they realized that it was exactly who they thought they were, they erupted into even louder cheering than ever before.

"What an honor to meet a living legend!" One civilian shouted.

"Legend? What are they talking abouuuuu- aaahh-!" Naruto screamed as they were about to crowd around them instead until the sound of jingling metal and someone speak. 

"Okay everyone that's enough." Said a voice that sounded like a young man from the midst of the crowd. The crowd parted ways for the voice and immediately became quiet once they saw who it was. The entire crowed bowed respectfully to the young man. He seemed to be just a little older than Naruto and Sasuke. He had black hair that fell just above his shoulder with jet black eyes. He's wearing a dark blue long sleeved dress shirt tucked into black pants, sported with a black belt and a silver buckle. He wears a black coat that had fur on it in the exact same way as Lilian's coat. He carried a silver staff designed the same way as the sage of six paths. 

"Lili, I can see from looking at these two that the mission was a success." He greeted with a kind smile. Lilian shook herself loose from Erza and ran towards this young man saying, 

"I missed you big broth- wah!" She tripped over a loose board in the dock and within an instant, the man she was about to call big brother appeared in front of her and caught her before she fell, getting oohs and aahs from the crowd.

"Lilian-sama you must really use your walking stick..." Izumo said 

_"He's quick on his feet."_ Sasuke thought 

"He's so fast!" Natsu said 

"I didn't even see him move." Gray said in disbelief. 

"I'd expect nothing less from him, he is our village's current leader." Kotetsu said with a smile. 

"Are you alright Lili?" He asked. 

"Yes, thank you, Borelle." **(A/N:** **The first** **one** **that** **can guess how I named these two, you'll win a special reward.** **And that reward will be a sneak peak on what's to come in later parts of this story.** **)** She answered with a smile. He helped her stand up straight again and asked, 

"Your eyes are bandaged, what happened to them?" He asked and she shook her head. 

"It was backlash from releasing the jutsu, I should be able to take them off today." Lili answered.

"That's good."

An angry growl erupted from Naruto's stomach, but Naruto wasn't hungry.

"Kurama what's wrong?" Naruto asked worriedly and Kurama continued to growl angrily.

" **This one's chakra… It reminds me of Madara."** Kurama growled.

"Really? He doesn't seem like that bad of a guy. Besides he's Lilian's older brother and she's awesome." Naruto responded.

" **How naive can you be? Or do you not remember the Uchiha brat's older brother?"** Kurama asked and Naruto wore a thoughtful look.

"Alright Kurama, I won't let my guard down. I promise." Naruto assured giving Kurama the classic 'good guy' thumbs up. Kurama looked at him, an annoyed expression plastered on his mug before responding, **"Hmph, just make sure, because if you die I die."**

"Now I'm sure all of you must be very tired from the long trip with all the sea monsters you've had to deal with. Please come with me and I'll show you where you can stay for the time being." Borelle said in a very respectful tone.

"Thanks but no thanks. We've already had this conversation on the ship. Lilian had something to show us and we want to make it quick." Sasuke said and Borelle chuckled.

"You must be talking about Lilian's destiny and what occurred when you were entrapped in that crystal. Very well then I'll show you." He said as he motioned for them to follow.

"All citizens, prepare a festival for the return of my sister." Borelle ordered and they all got right to it.

"You're pretty young to be a village leader. Or are you just older than we think you are?" Erza asked and Borelle facial expression became very serious and so did Lili's.

"You see, it wasn't until a few years ago that I became the leader of the village. Our parents, my father, who was the village leader for some time, was murdered. I will never forget the day..." He explained.

"July 7, X777. Our parents were assassinated and their eyes were brutally gouged out of their heads." Lili said as she balled up her fists in anger, trying as hard as she could to fight back the tears that were forming in her eyes.

"Wait! Did you just say July 7, X777?! That's the same day that Igneel disappeared!" Natsu exclaimed. Everyone was shocked to say the least, it wasn't everyday you hear a story about someone being mutilated.

"Could those two events somehow be connected?" Erza asked.

"No way! Igneel is a nice dragon! He would never do something like that!" Natsu exclaimed.

"I don't think a gigantic dragon could assassinate a couple and then rip their eyes out of their head." Gray said matter-of-factly.

"You said that their eyes were missing. What kind of eyes did they have, and how many people in the village possess that eye?" Sasuke asked.

"No one in the village possess Sharingan other than myself and my father. My mother had the Byakugan and her eyes were gouged out as well. The villagers suspect me because they know what it takes to unlock the full potential of the Sharingan. And as an Uchiha, you should know too." Borelle answered and Sasuke pondered.

"Do you have the Mangekyō Sharingan?" He asked and Borelle activated his normal, three tomoe sharingan.. Then the sharingan shifted into a four pronged shuriken with dagger shapped blades with straight thin blades sticking out diagonally from the center.

" _They're not the same as Sasuke's. Or they're not as strong as Sasuke's I should say."_ Erza thought as she stared right into his blood red eyes.

"Wow those are so cool! Where I can I get a pair of those?!" Natsu asked.

"I don't think you can just buy them Natsu..." Happy said, sweat dropping in embarrassment.

"Those are some pretty scary looking eyes." Gray said as he continued to stare into them.

"Don't stare at them too long, you might get caught in a genjutsu." Naruto said and Borelle's eyes bled just a tiny bit right as he was about to deactivate his eyes.

"I hope I never have to use those eyes..." Borelle groaned as he covered his eyes.

"You shouldn't. Use them too much and you'll end up like her. Forever." Sasuke said as he pointed over to Lilian.

"I know..."

…

They continued to walk until they were in quite a shrewd location along the outskirts of the village. There was a large shrine that resembled an ancient Buddha temple, and by the looks of the rundown stone on the buildings it was ancient.

"This building was built centuries ago, in the honor of the saviors of the world." Borelle said as they stepped up to a door that had quite an intricate seal on it. There were two small panels about the size of a normal human's hand that were connected to the seal.

"Place your hands on those two panels, the seal can only react to chakra from the six paths. No, that would be incorrect. It will only react to the chakra of Ashura and Indra." Borelle said.

Naruto and Sasuke glanced at each other for a moment and nodded. They raised their hands and placed it on the panel as was directed and suddenly orange chakra began to leak from Naruto's hand while purple chakra leaked from Sasuke's hand respectively. The chakra criss-crossed and traced the entire seal before meeting in the middle and filling in the yin-yang seal.

A bright light flashed and the sound of a door unlocking filled the air. Once the light faded, the large door began to slowly open up to a dark room. Once they stepped inside, orange and purple flames were lit on several torches within the room and shed some light on it. On the sides of the wall, there paintings of several different battles going on between different shinobi in history.

"These walls show the history of the shinobi that Ashura's and Indra's spirit has transmigrated to. Even if it hadn't been for long, at some point, Ashura and Indra saw potential in them." Borelle explained.

"Madara and the First Hokage we knew already." Sasuke said as he looked on.

"Even Pervy Sage and Orochimaru?!" Naruto asked and everyone sweatdropped except for Natsu.

"HAHAHA who ever that is probably deserves that name." Natsu laughed, wiping a tear in his eye.

"Yeah!, one time he told me he was going to look after my training, you know where he is? At the bath house spying on women bathing!" Naruto complained and Natsu nearly died of laughter.

"But get this, as revenge I knocked him into the bathhouse using one of my special jutsu. A jutsu that works on pretty much every strong opponent." He boasted and Natsu had stars in his eyes.

"Can you show us?! Please?!" Natsu pleaded and Naruto smirked devilishly as he formed the ram seal.

"Se-" Naruto started but he was interrupted with a smack on the back of the head by the hilt of Sasuke's sword. Naruto got back up in a flash and rolled up his sleeve to his bicep and threatened to beat Sasuke to a pulp.

"Pay attention you idiot. Look." The latter said as he pointed to the wall. The former relaxed and looked at the wall that his friend was pointing to. On that wall, there were remnants of all of Naruto and Sasuke's battles all the way up until the back wall. It shows the end of their battle when they were near death, both with one less arm than they came into the battle with. Both with tired smiles on their faces, battered, bruised and bloody, but they looked to be at peace.

"Wow. I had no idea that you guys fought on this level." Erza said as she was completely astonished from the paintings.

"Natsu and I fight all the time, but never to a point like this." Gray said.

"Jeez, I thought you guys were supposed to be friends. But it looks like you guys were down right trying to kill each other." Natsu said.

"It would take forever to explain exactly what happened." Sasuke said.

"How long ago did you say this place was built?" Naruto asked.

"No one knows exactly but I'd say at least a few centuries." Lilian answered.

"So you're telling me..."

"I figured as much." Sasuke sighed.

"WE WERE SENT INTO THE FUTURE BY A FEW HUNDRED YEARS?!" Naruto shouted at the top of his lungs. Soon after he was crouched down with his hands on his head trembling, just completely in shock

"But wait I don't understand. If they're centuries old, and they seem to be legends and icons, how come we have never heard of them? Even if it was just a few centuries, the history of shinobi should be well known within Fiore if it's the history of our world." Erza asked.

"That's a good point, I've never even heard of these two before, but the townspeople cheered as if they were the most important people in the world." Gray commented.

"I don't get it..." Natsu and Happy said as they both scratched their head in confusion.

"Someone had made it their goal to completely erase the history of shinobi, especially Naruto and Sasuke. As of now, no one knows who did it. But ever since the end of the 4th shinobi war and the induction of ethernano and magic in the world, the pracitice of shinobi had begun to falter little by little. Now, we are the only real shinobi village left. The Village Hidden in the Mist." Borelle explained.

"Although, we aren't really The Village Hidden in the Mist, we might be in the Mist's region but this isn't directly the village you know. This is actually what used to be The Village Hidden in the Leaves." Lilian said and Naruto picked his head up slightly.

"Don't fret, your dream of becoming Hokage hasn't expired yet." Borelle reassured with a smile.

"Besides, all the things that you wanted to change when you become Hokage gave already happened. Your friends made it their priority to set your policies in order, knowing that you possibly would not return for along time." Borelle continued. Naruto's expression didn't change much but he did see what Borelle was explaining to him. He was happy that his friends wanted to help him that much but… His dream was to become Hokage, and he could become that now if he wanted to. But the Hokage doesn't mean anything if the people don't even know who you and want you in the office simply because of your legacy. It just wasn't right…

Sasuke was also feeling some lashes on his heart after hearing that he advanced centuries past his time. Even though the world has remained stable somewhat, it has interfered with the progress of his journey. Although he didn't have much with of a relationship with anyone else in the Leaf other than Sakura, Kakashi and of course Naruto, it still hit home that he wasn't returning to the same home that he could.

The two of them were quietly moping and it made it awkward for any of the Fairy Tail members to even want to speak to them.

"Naruto..." Happy called out but Natsu stopped him.

"You two can mop about it later. Right now, you have to get to work. You won't be able to find a way back to your own time, nor will you be able to defend the world from the impending threat if you spend all your time moping." Borelle said and the two picked up their heads.

"You guys remember what I told you when I first said my last name? There is a threat that is approaching and they are coming after you. If you do not prepare for them, they will crush you in an instant. These two are an even bigger threat than Kaguya herself." Lilian said.

"Who's coming for us?" Naruto asked.

"We don't have any names, but they are also members of the Otsutsuki clan. They are so dedicated to capture the both of you, they encased themselves in a crystal in the same fashion that you two were placed in. However luck is on our side. We're a few years ahead of them, we have reason to believe they will not move for another two years or so." Borelle explained.

"How exactly is it that you know this information?" Erza asked.

"This information has been passed down from Hokage to Hokage ever since a man named Kakashi Hatake was in power. How they received this information is beyond our knowledge however." Borelle answered.

"So how do you know this information is accurate if you don't know how they got it?" Gray asked.

"You have a good point, but would you rather prepare and be wrong than be unprepared and be right?" He answered and Gray had no further arguments.

"Well that's perfect, now we have a time frame to be aware of when coming back to the guild." Sasuke said.

"Yosh, I will still become Hokage. I won't give up! That's my nindo, my ninja way!"

"Still, there's something I don't understand. Why did they have to wait so long to be released from the crystal they were enclosed in?" Gray asked.

"The seal that they were entrapped in had a special requirement that needed to be reached or else they would still be in there to this day." Borelle started

"Kaguya had set that trap in place, with the confidence that the requirements of the seal could never be met. The requirement was for someone who was born with a special eye that had only been known to be aquired between the mixing of specific chakras. That eye..." Lilian explained as she began to unwrap the bandages around her eyes. Everyone focused on her eyes with the utmost attention.

"...Is the Tenseigan."

 **Next Chapter: Just you wait! I'll be much stronger!"**

 **Once again for the umpteenth time I apologize for taking so long with the uploading of this chapter**

 **Saru: Don't worry, everything will be explained about Zaidan and all other current confusions in due time so please just wait for me.**


	8. I'll Become Much Stronger!

**Chapter 8: I'll become much stronger!**

Lilian's pupils and irides were a light blue color, and had white floral pattern in them.

"Most people, they have never even heard of the Tenseigan, let alone even knew someone who had aquired it." Borelle explained. 

"The only known way to obtain the Tenseigan is to plant the Byakugan of a pure Hyuuga into someone who possesses Hamura Otsutsuki's chakra. However as in the case for myself, someone can be born with it. But to the knowledge and understanding of everyone else, this only happens once every thousand years or so. Even still, only the higher ups in the Otsutsuki clan even know this method." Lilian explained. Naruto and the rest pondered for a moment. 

"So if I've been listening correctly, then this Hamura guy was the last person to obtain this Tenseigan or whatever you call it through a natural process?" Gray asked and the siblings both nodded 

"What exactly does the Tenseigan do anyway?" Naruto asked and Lilian's eyes began to glow. Then suddenly Happy and Erza began to glow the same color as her eyes and they began to float in the air. 

"Woah, what kind of power is this?" Erza asked calmly but definitely quite impressed, while Happy on the other hand... He was flailing his arms and legs desperately trying to touch the ground again. 

"It feels too weird to fly without control." Happy whined as she let him down. Everyone was amazed as they saw Erza flying around the room with the grace of an angel. 

"The Tenseigan grants me the ability to attract and repel objects with myself as the epicenter. But unlike the Rinnegan there is no time interval in which I can use this ability. Unfortunately, two people are my limit when it comes to flying." Lilian explained as she allowed Erza to drop gracefully on to the ground. 

"That was one of the most interesting fun experiences I've ever had. Thank you." Erza said. Lilian returning the thanks with just a smile. 

"I wanna do it too! Me next! Me next!" Natsu begged as he bounced around like a child. Then he began to glow and soon he was lifted off the ground. He was laughing and 'wooing' all the way through like a kid on a rollercoaster. 

"Such a child." Gray said pretending to be indifferent about the whole thing. 

"You wanna fly too, don't you." Borelle teased with a smirk. The same 'you like krabby patties don't you Squidward' smirk. 

"Hey what gave you that crazy idea?" Gray protested before he too was glowing and floating off the ground. He pouted and had an attitude but before long he having a blast. 

"Can you make yourself fly?" Naruto asked and Lilian shook her head. 

"Not in this state." She answered 

"What do you mean by this state?" Sasuke asked. 

"I'm saving that part for last so I guess I should go ahead and let Borelle explain what else it does because making two people for takes quite a bit of concentration..." She answered and stopped Natsu and Gray from nearly crashing into each other. 

"While it doesn't have anywhere near the range of the Byakugan, she does have the near 360° vision. But it does indeed help her to use her. Boomerang in combat." Borelle explained. 

"A boomerang huh? I don't think I know anyone who uses those." Erza said. 

"Yes with the abilities of the Tenseigan, she can make the boomerang as sharp as any blade. Since she doesn't have to touch it, it's at no risk to get. Besides a boomerang and near 360° vision is a great combination." He continued. 

"Seeing as how it's a boomerang, it'll always come back. So she only has to use her powers on it during the throw and during the catch." Sasuke commented. 

"Then she can focus more on other things in a fight right?" Happy asked and Borelle nodded. 

"But that's not all she can do..." The latter said as the younger sister slowly let down Natsu and Gray.

"Out of curiosity, where do you keep your boomerang?" Erza asked.

"You know… I actually don't know either." Borelle said as Lilian turned towards them. Then she held the collar of her shirt with her left hand and reached down into it with her right hand. She dug around her chest area for a little while before pulling out a boomerang almost the height of Borelle's staff.

"HOW CAN YOU KEEP IT IN THERE?!" Naruto and Borelle shouted in disbelief. 

"Ahem, I think it's time to show them the best part of the Tenseigan's power don't you think Lili?" Borelle asked, clearing his throat. 

"I can't wait to see this, Lili is awesome!" Natsu exclaimed. 

"Okay everyone stand back." Lili warned and everyone did what they were told. She formed the ram seal and a light blue-green aura began to radiate around her body. Soon her whole body became like a glowing human made of chakra. Her hair flowed upwards against natural gravity **(A/N: The same way Dimaria's hair flows in her Time God mode)**. Extremely similar to Naruto's six paths transformation, a few truth seeking balls appeared and floated around her.  
Everyone was in complete shock, gawking at her transformation. With the exception of Borelle of course. 

"The amount of power I sense of through the roof!" Erza said, flabbergasted along with a wordless Natsu and Gray. 

"It's almost like mine." Naruto marveled at her transformation. 

"Unfortunately I'm not as good as Naruto-sama yet. I can only make three truth seeking balls." Lilian acknowledged. 

"I've never seen these weird things before" Natsu said with curiosity as he went to poke the truth seeking ball. Then there was a sound of metal jingling. "I can't move!" Natsu bellowed as he struggled to move. The truth seeking ball that was merely inches away from his finger slowly moved away from it. 

"You mustn't touch the black balls that are floating around her! If you do you'll die!" Borelle warned, shocking everyone. 

_"What did he do just now to stop Natsu?"_ Sasuke thought as he looked at the ground underneath Natsu. 

_"It wasn't shadow possession..."_ He continued. Then he looked up at Borelle's eyes and saw that his sharingan wasn't activated. 

_"It wouldn't matter because Natsu wouldn't have been able to make eye contact anyway."_ He deduced. Then he looked at the staff that Borelle was holding and everything clicked. 

_"Genjutsu... Not only does he have the Mangekyou Sharingan but has other forms of manipulating people. He's dangerous..."_ Sasuke thought as he watched Borelle carefully. 

"How exactly are those black balls instant death?" Gray asked. Borelle made the all too familiar handsign and a clone of himself came into existence. Without even saying anything, Lilian made one of her truth seeking orbs touch the chest of her older brother's clone and in an instant, it turned to dust. 

"Unbelievable. The gap between wizards and shinobi versatility seems endless." Erza said. 

"I wanna be a ninja now! Nin-nin!" Natsu declared as he wrapped his face with his scarf and formed the ram seal. Happy also imitated Natsu's actions. 

"Magic seems like it can be used for all kinds of things other than fighting though." Naruto said. 

"I want to learn more about our history, the history of shinobi." Erza said, although it sounded more like a declaration than a regular statement. 

"For someone who doesn't know about shinobi, your chakra reserves are pretty high." Lilian said as she deactivated her chakra mode. 

"Really? How is that?" Erza asked. 

"I knew it!" Naruto crowed and everyone drew their attention towards him. 

"Knew what?" Sasuke asked. 

"Red hair. Unusually large chakra reserves. And she's skilled with seals. She must be a long lost Uzumaki!" Naruto accused. 

"Well if you are an Uzumaki, at least you're not annoying like the ones I've met." Sasuke said and Erza sweatdropped. 

"Uhhhh thanks?" She said awkwardly. Meanwhile Naruto was ticked off at the subtle jab that Sasuke just threw at him. However, another idea popped in his head as he smiled sinisterly. 

"Oh? He said you're not annoying? That must mean he likes you." Naruto teased as he nudged her with his elbow and Erza blushed a little, behaving slightly bashfully. 

"What are you talking about loser?" Sasuke asked in an annoyed tone. 

"I mean... Who haven't you called annoying other than Erza?" Naruto asked, feigning ignorance and innocence. 

"You know, when I think about, he's right..." Natsu spoke almost unconsciously. 

"He lllllllliiiiiikes youuuuuu." Happy teased, aggressively rolling his tongue. 

"And here I thought you were too cool for something like this." Gray said feigning disappointment.  
Borelle watched the argument and soon to be chaos ensue amongst the group, sweatdropping in the process. 

"Two weeks of this? You'd think the Shinobi of their caliber would be a bit more... Intimidating..." Borelle said in amazement. Lilian's giggled turned into a full on laugh as she watched them. Borelle glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. She wore this radiant smile that could illuminate the entire village. A true smile, true laughter, she was really enjoying herself.

" _I haven't seen her laugh like this since our parents died."_

"Okay that's enough fooling around for now, we have a future to discuss." Borelle said and everyone straightened up. 

"About this message. Do you know what it means?" Sasuke asked as held out the black scroll that Lili had made Erza read off of. 

"As far as what it means I don't know. But I can tell you a little bit about Zaidan." Borelle said. 

"The only thing that we know about he was created by a shinobi by the name of Orochimaru. And that he was the first Dragon King." Borelle concluded. 

"Orochimaru created him? Why am I even surprised..." Naruto asked in disbelief. 

"I don't know who this Orochimaru is personally but he certainly changed the world with his experiments." Borelle said. 

"Even still, dragons didn't exist in our time. If Orochimaru created Zaidan, he shouldn't know who we are because this had to have taken place after we were sealed." Sasuke pointed out. 

"Then again the scroll did say he had a vision." Erza commented. 

"Do you know where his lab is? If we find it we might be able to find out more about Zaidan." Naruto asked and Lili shook her head. 

"Honestly hardly anyone knows where anything is because the entire geography of the earth has changed a long time ago." Lili answered. 

"That's right, you did say that this is the hidden leaf in the Mist's region. How did that even happen?" Sasuke asked. 

"It was caused by a forbidden spell used by wizards, called Universe One. We assume that the same person who tried to erase the history of shinobi is responsible for it. Orochimaru's lab and many other important things could be on the bottom of the ocean right now." Lili answered and their expression seemed downcast. However Naruto's head perked up when he recalled, "Wait, I just remembered something! Sasuke, do you have that book?"  
Sasuke pulled the book out of his cloak and handed it to him. 

"Do you guys know anything about this book?" Naruto asked as he shoved the book into their faces. 

"No I don't know this book. Why is it special?" Borelle asked. 

"There's only 13 pages and they're all blank!" Naruto said as he addsopened the book to him and flipped the pages. Borelle took the book from him and looked at the cover. 

"Roku... Shodaim? Who is that?" 

"Oh... So you don't know either..." Naruto said, clear disappointment in his tone. Borelle looked the pages of the book and activate his sharingan. 

"My sharingan can't see anything so there's no hidden message as far as I see." He said. 

"What are you talking about? There's a number right there." Lili said, pointing to the blank page. 

"I guess only the Rinnegan and Tenseigan can see it. Which makes my theory even more plausible." Sasuke said. 

"What theory?" 

"That Roku Shodaim is the sage of six paths." Naruto answered. 

"That's not a bad assumption, but what could he be trying to hide that he'd go as far as this?" Borelle asked. 

"I don't think he could have even made this book seeing as how he disappeared after our battle with Kaguya." Sasuke answered. 

_Thump!_

Everyone's turned towards the noise and they saw Natsu prone with swirls in his eyes. 

"Natsu is unable to battle!" Happy declared, raising his hand like a referee. 

"Poor Natsu, seems like his brain can't handle all this information." Lili giggled. 

"Anyway, I think we should just try to live life as normally as possible until the time comes when we have to deal with those guys." Naruto suggested. 

"That's the most logical thing to do at this moment." Erza said. 

"Out of curiosity, what exactly happened to the other villages?" Sasuke asked. 

"Like our village, they were all just moved to different locations. Except for one." Lilian answered and everyone including Natsu perked at her words. 

"Over 400 years ago, the black dragon of the Apocalypse, Acnologia completely annihilated the Hidden Cloud along with the majority of the land of lightning." She continued. 

"What?! One creature destroyed nearly entire nation?" Erza questioned as her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. 

"But why?" Gray asked. 

"No one knows. Most assume that it destroyed the village because of sheer whim." Borelle answered and Natsu started to walk off. 

"Where are you going?" Erza asked. 

"I'm going to find that dragon and ask it where Igneel is." Natsu answered. 

"You don't even know where it is, and even if you did, you're a dragon slayer. Acnologia would gladly destroy you so there's even less of a risk of him being slain." Gray warned. 

"Acnologia is responsible for wiping out nearly an entire nation all by itself. What makes you think you can defeat someone like that?" Sasuke interrogated. 

"Well I won't know until I try!" Natsu shouted as he continued to walk out, at least until Naruto tired on his scarf. 

"He's just as stubborn as you are." Sasuke said to Naruto. 

"You need to calm down. As long as you don't give up, you'll find Igneel. Acnologia destroyed the cloud village over 400 years ago, and hasn't done anything noteworthy since then. Acnologia might not even exist anymore." Naruto said trying to calm Natsu down.  
The latter hit the pillar with the side his fist and cursed, "Damn it..." 

"Now that we know some major details that have happened since we've been gone, I have one more question to ask." Naruto said, bringing the attention back towards him. 

"What happened to the other tailed beasts? Kurama said that he couldn't contact the rest of them." 

"Honestly we don't know. Some believe that they've been scattered across the world when universe one was activated." Borelle answered. 

"Maybe they've been captured." Sasuke chimed in. 

"I hope not... But that's most likely the case. I don't even know what to do." Naruto said as his expression became downcast. 

"There's so many things that are unclear and so many things that are blank in the times between now and when we were around." Sasuke added. 

"The best way to start searching for answers is to first learn about the current world that you live in. It's harder to understand how and why before you know the answer to 'what'." Borelle said and Lili nodded. 

"Well there's no point in sitting around and complaining. It's time to get moving." Gray said. 

"Hold on. Before we go I have one last thing to ask." Naruto said as his stomach began to growl and everyone sweatdropped. 

"Would Ichiraku's happen to still be around?" He asked as good stomach growled loudly again. 

"Actually it is. It's in the middle-" Lili started to answer but Naruto had no desire to wait any longer as he disappeared, leaving only a distorted after image of himself behind. 

"I don't think I've seen someone move so fast they leave behind an after image." Gray said. 

"Well we've had a long two week trip, I'd say we can relax a little before we head back." Erza said. 

So the gang caught up with Naruto and decided that they would spend a few days before returning to Magnolia. 

**(2 & 1/2 weeks later...)**

"We're finally back home!" Natsu announced as he stretched his arms out above his head. 

"Relish this moment while you can. It'll be two years before you come back here." Erza advised.

"We'll leave tomorrow morning. It's best for you to say your goodbyes now." Sasuke said as they started walking towards the guild. As they walked through the town of Magnolia, they noticed that the streets were uncharacteristically empty.

"Where is everyone?" Happy asked.

"I don't think I've seen Magnolia so deserted before." Erza added. Soon after, dark clouds began to form over Magnolia. Soft sounds of thunder was heard throughout town as the group decided to head to the guild hall with more haste. They swiftly opened the doors to the guild and what they saw was not what they had expected at all. The always lively Fairy Tail guild was nowhere near the reputation it had gained. Everyone sat around with a depressed look in their eyes.

Mirajane and Elfman stood not that far ahead of their group. Mirajane turned around slightly to face them and they noticed that she had a broken arm. Elfman was trembling, and his shoulders were pulsing up and down while his head hung low. It was so quiet, everyone was able to hear Elfman's tears fall to the ground.

"What happened?!" Erza implored, seeing the condition of Mirajane and feeling the emotion of everyone in the guild.

"Oi… Where's Lisanna?" Natsu gulped, taking a huge pause in his question. He didn't see Lisanna, and he didn't catch whiff of her scent either. Praying to himself that she just happened to be out on a job by herself and something else happened.

"Lisanna… died." Mirajane answered and everyone flinched at the news. A moment of silence fell upon the guild once again. No one really knew how to react after hearing the news that precious comrade has fallen. With the exception of a few people, no one in the guild had experienced a death of a close friend since they joined the Fairy Tail guild. Lisanna wasn't just Mirajane and Elfman's younger sibling, she was Fairy Tail's 'little sister'. Everyone adored the youngest of the Strauss siblings like she was their own. She always kept a bright smile, lifting everyone's spirits even in the toughest times.

Natsu's lip curled upwards as he tried hold back his tears. Honestly, Lisanna was his first real friend when he came to Fairy Tail. Erza was like a super scary older sister, and Gray was just the boy that he never got along with. She helped him hatch Happy, and take care of him when he was first born. She was by far the friendliest person he had ever met in his life, even more than Igneel. But now she's gone forever.

"DAMN IT!" Natsu cursed as loud as he could while he ran out of the guild hall.

He ran and he ran until he tripped. He slammed his fist on the ground in frustration, but when he looked ahead of him his eyes began to shimmer. It was a small straw hut, built to be big enough for a few children to fit in.

"This is..."

 **(Flashback)**

Young Natsu was carrying the egg that Happy would later be hatched out of under his shirt into the small straw hut. A young Lisanna was inside waiting for him to return and once he did her eyes lit up.

"Welcome home Natsu." She happily greeted.

"Hm? Oh, right..." Natsu indifferently responded.

"Wel-come. Ho-me." Lisanna repeated with a very irritated expression which caused Natsu to flinch.

"I-I'm home." Natsu said.

 **(Flashback End)**

"Lisanna, are you really?…"

 **(Flashback)**

"What is this?" Natsu asked as Lisanna placed white flowers and kneeled down in front of a hand made grave.

"This is the grave that Elfman built himself for his parakeet that died." Lisanna said as she had a quick prayer.

"He built this himself? Pretty creative." Natsu complimented the elder brother in a very nonchalant way. Once Lisanna was finished with her prayer she turned slightly to Natsu and with the most innocent eyes ever she asked, "Hey, Natsu. When I die, will you make my grave for me?"

 **(End flashback)**

Natsu's tears began to flow like waterfalls as he sobbed on his hands and knees. Then the rain started to pour down on the city of Magnolia. Fairy Tail's influence over the town seemed to even affect the weather in the area. And it seemed as though the tears of the entire guild would rain upon the city on that day as they mourned the death of the adored little sister.

 _Splash!_

Natsu heard the splash sound but didn't even bother to turn around. However he did get up, but he still held his head down. People that knew Natsu, they knew that it wasn't easy to break Natsu emotionally. Sure he had his angry outburst, and there may have been other sad times in the guild. But until now, he had never broken down and cried uncontrollably.

"There's nothing I could tell you, to make you feel better. All I can do is just be here for you, not only as your new master. But as your friend." Naruto said in an effort to try and comfort Natsu who remained motionless.

"Lisanna was a person, who made you believe, there's no way they could die." He answered in an extremely low voice. Had Naruto been any further away, he wouldn't have been able to hear him.

"My old master, Per- I mean Jiraiya Sensei, was someone who I also believed never could die. When I found out about his death and immediately wanted to get revenge. One bad move, and I could have been fallen into hatred. When a man learns to love, he must bear the risk of hatred." Naruto said as he walked up next to Natsu who still didn't budge an inch.

"Please, don't hate anyone. No matter what."" Naruto pleaded and Natsu turned to him.

"Losing a comrade..." Natsu quavered as his emotions began to get the better of him once again. He turned away from Naruto as his tears begana flow out again.

"Nothing's more painful..."

…

The next morning, Natsu was back at the same spot with his travel gear with him placing a large object into the ground. It was a coffin shaped tombstone with the Fairy Tail insignia carved onto it. And right under it read, "Here lies Lisanna, little sister to all and friend to animal souls" He also placed the same white flowers that she had placed on the grave of Elfman's parakeet onto her grave as well.

"Hey Natsu. There's a grave by the church, why're you putting one here?" Happy asked.

"She doesn't belong in a place like that. Besides, if she's here she can watch the sunset as much as she wants. She'd enjoy that." Natsu answered.

"Aye sir."

"It's all my fault… I tried to do a complete takeover… and I lost control of myself… a-and… a-and… I killed Lisanna." Elfman sobbed uncontrollably, standing a short distance away from Natsu and Happy.

"So what?" Natsu growled lowly.

"You think this is what Lisanna would want? For all of us to sit around and cry like a bunch of babies?"

"Natsu..."

"NO SHE'D WANT US TO KEEP SMILING LIKE SHE ALWAYS WOULD. SO BE A MAN AND LIVE LIFE PROUDLY FOR HER!" Natsu snapped at Elfman which turned his sobbing into whimpering.

"I'll see you in two years..." Natsu said as he walked by him and put his hand on Elfman's shoulder, smiling along the way. This moment moved in slow motion for Elfman as it gave him a sense of calmness. Mirajane watched the whole scene transpire, hiding behind a nearby tree. Her hair shadowed her eyes but a small smile began to creep over her face as well while she walked off.

Nauto and Sasuke waited for Natsu and Gray in front of the guild hall. All of the guild members had gathered in front of the hall also in order to perform a temporary farewell to their comrades. Gray was the first to show up, of course in nothing but on the top half of his body but his traveling bag.

"Gray where are the rest of your clothes?..." Cana asked and Gray panicked, scrambling looking for his missing clothes.

"Please try to cure his habit while you're gone." Levy asked.

"Will do..." Naruto and Sasuke chroused.

Then Natsu came along with Happy and joined everyone else. Natsu noticed the entire guild standing there as well and asked, "What's this all about?"

"We're here to see you off." Makarov said as he stepped in front of the crowd. Erza then showed up with her ginormous amount of luggage and everyone was looked at her confusingly.

"Uhm what are you doing?" Naruto asked.

"I'm coming along with you. I want to hone my skills as well." Erza answered and Sasuke motioned for her to come towards him. When she was within arms length he poked her forehead and said, "Sorry, maybe next time."

"Why can't I come?" She whined whilst sporting a hardly noticeable blush.

"We're depending on you to protect the guild in our absence. Nothing personal." Gray smiled.

"All right it's time to hit the road!" Natsu said as he began walking towards the city's border. The rest of the group began to follow Natsu's action and walking. They waved goodbye with smiles on their faces, although they've just experienced a tragic loss, they're following in the late Lisanna's footsteps, maintaining a smile no matter what.

"See you guys later!"

"Have a safe trip!""

"Work hard Natsu or even we'll be able to beat you!"

"Please don't destroy anything!"

" _When I come back..."_

" _In 2 years..."_

" _I'll be much stronger!"_ Natsu and Gray's thoughts chorused.


	9. X784

**Chapter 9: X784**

 **A/N: Two chapters in less than a month?! It must be the apocalypse! Lol, no seriously, the next few chapters should be uploaded pretty quickly at least up until about Chapter 13 or so. Don't question it just accept it lol. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, for the most part it's really just like episode 1 of Fairy Tail. Please review I'd really appreciate it. Every time I get a positive review I get all fired up. Thanks so much, I love all of you guys who have gotten me to nearly 200 reviews and nearly 500 followers and favorites :D**

 _ _In a land far far aeay__ _ _lies the Kingdom of Fiore, a small peaceful nation of 17 million, and a place filled with magic! Found in every home, bought and sold in every marketplace, for most,__ _ _magic is merely a tool__ ** _ _,__** _ _a__ _ _mundane part of everyday life.__ _ _For some, however, magic is an art, and they have devoted their lives to its practice. These are the mages. Banded together into magical guilds they apply their skills in search of fame and fortune. Many such guilds dot the landscape of Fiore. But there is a certain guild in a certain town that soars high above the rest, one from which countless legends have been born... a guide that will no doubt continue to create legends well into the future. Its name... is__ _ _Fairy Tail__ ** _ _.__**

"Is this really the only magic shop in the whole town?" A girl in her late teens asked the owner. She has brown eyes and shoulder-length blonde hair that is tied by a ribbon that was blue in color in a small ponytail to the right side of her head with the rest of the hair loose.

She wore a sleeveless, white collared shirt that had blue along all the edges of the shirt. Along with the blue skirt and brown belt that she kept her pouch with an assortment of keys on it, she also wore knee-high, black, high-heeled boots.

This girl's name, is Lucy.

"Yes ma'am, but as you can see we have an assortment of magical items here. Ones that can instantly change the color of your clothes..." The owner began to ramble on and on about different items that Lucy didn't particularly care for.

 _" _I don't really care about that stuff. All I really want is-"__ Lucy's thoughts were interrupted when the shop owner finally presented something to her that peeked her interests.

"That's a silver gate key! White Doggy! I've been looking for one like this." Lucy gasped when her eyes laid on said item.

"Yes, the very same, although it's not very powerful." The owner responded and Lucy's eyes began to shimmer with joy.

"Hey old man, how much for this key?" Lucy inquired.

"20,000 jewell." The owner said flatly and Lucy's face faltered.

"How much did you say it was?"

"20,000 jewell." He answered, maintaining the same leisurely attitude. Lucy sat on top of the counter and placed on leg up on it in a very seducing manner. She ran her finger along her long, smooth, porcelain skin and asked in a very seductive voice, "Is it really that much, Mr. Nice Uncle?" And to top off her seduction attempt she added a wink.

"Screw that old man! He only knocked 1,000 jewell off the price! Is my sexual appeal really only worth 1,000 jewell?" Lucy cursed as she stormed through the public streets of Hargeon. She walked along an overpass that was in the middle of town and when she looked down, she saw a large group of people gathered in one area.

 _ **Meanwhile…**_

The scheduled arriving train had just pulled into Hargeon from Shirotsume. Four young men and a blue cat stepped off the train. Well, the one with the pink hair crawled out of the train with as much strength as he had left.

"I never… want to ride a train… again." He groaned as he turned more and more green around the gills by the second.

"Having motion sickness is a pretty strange weakness to have Natsu." Happy belittled his long time best friend. Natsu's outfit hadn't changed much except for the fact that the vest that he once wore was replaced with an open collar, long sleeved overcoar version of his previously worn vest. The sleeve covers Natsu's left arm with a faux leather brown armband, leaving his Fairy Tail mark, as well as his entire right arm, consequently exposed. Natsu continues wearing Igneel's scarf and retains the same lower clothing with the exception of his feet in which he know wears black, high-calf boots.

"Only one more day until we get to Magnolia." Naruto yawned as he stretched, shaking off the dust from the long train ride.

"I heard that Salamander is in this town. Isn't that amazing?"

"I knooowww, I hope that I get to see him, he's such a big deal!"

"A big salamander?… This town?..." Natsu's thoughts were incoherent and distorted due to his motion sickness but there was no mistaking those few words. An instant he got up and approached the women, while still being green around the gills.

"Where… is this Salamander? Huh?" Natsu groggily asked which horrified the women and caused them to run away screaming.

"Natsu could you please not cause any trouble today..." Naruto requested as he watched Natsu groggily walk out of the station like a man who had one too many cups of sake.

"Come back to the inn before it's too late." Sasuke said and Natsu lazily waved back without even looking.

"I'm gonna make my way over to this town's ramen shop. Although, some of Mira's ramen would be nice right about now." Naruto drooled as he began to jog towards his desired destination. Gray and Sasuke just looked at each other and sighed before they too went their own separate directions.

…

Natsu walked through town and saw some women running towards a spot in town talking about Salamander being spotted somewhere in that area so he decided to follow them. He followed them until they came upon a huge crowd and they all happened to be women. They were surrounding this relatively tall and slim man with mildly short, spiky hair jutting outwards, with a long fringe left hanging over the upper left part of his face. He possesses a mildly rectangular face with sharp features, dark eyes and thin, dark eyebrows. His most distinctive facial feature is most likely the dark tattoo covering the right part of his forehead, just above his right eyebrow, this being highly reminiscent of a thin, stylized pair of tongs placed horizontally, with the "handles" pointing towards his right.

 _" _Why is my heart beating so fast around this guy?!__ _ _Is it because he's a famous wizard?__ _ _"__ Lucy panicked within her mind as her heart moved at a mile a minute.

"Excuse me… Sorry… Passing through… Igneel!" Natsu politely crawled his way through the entire crowd and once he exited he looked up at this man who claimed himself to be Salamander. This man stared at Natsu nervously while Natsu squinted his eyes, drilling holes into his being.

"Who the heck are you?" Natsu questioned and everyone in the crowd gasped. Meanwhile something in Lucy's mind shattered and she was finally able to think straight again.

"Would the name 'Salamander' ring a bell to you?" He asked but Natsu had already walked away from him before he even finished his question. This man's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates in reaction to Natsu's complacency towards him. You could tell this man was used to being the center of attention. Lucy stood there confused for a moment while all of the women in the crowd decisively put a beating on Natsu and effectively threw him out of the crowd.

"How dare you disrespect Salamander like that!"

"Don't you know who he is?!" shouted many women amongst the mob against Natsu.

"Ladies, please. I'm sure he didn't mean anything by it." The man known as 'Salamander' reassured them. Then he pulled out a blank white card and put his signature on it. All the ladies were instantly wooed by him again, cheering on and on about hoe 'Salamander' was the coolest wizard ever. Meanwhile Lucy glared at him to no end, seemingly disgusted with this man.

"Here, use this and brag to all your friends." Salamander smiled, handing his autograph to Natsu.

"No thanks." Natsu said flatly and all the women beat on him again.

"Guess he wasn't here after all." Happy said sarcastically

"Jeez what was that for?" Natsu grumbled as he rubbed the lumps on his head.

"All of you ladies, you're all invited to the party on my boat tonight. Make sure you stop by." 'Salamander' said as he rode a wave of purple fire and flashily made his exit. All the women watched with awe and followed him in every direction that he would go.

"Who was that guy?..." Natsu questioned as he watched him fly off.

"He was a real creep." Natsu heard the feminine voice and turned towards her. Lucy was smiling and waved at him.

"Thanks."

"Thanks for what?" Natsu asked as he looked at Happy confused.

 _…._ _ **Hargeon Restaraunt**_

"My name's Lucy. Ummmm, Natsu and Happy was it?" Lucy greeted

"Mmmhmmm" Natsu was chowing down like an animal on a mountain of food that Lucy had so graciously bought them. Happy, of course, following in his first friend's footsteps was chowing down on a mountain of fish. They ate so rapidly and uncivilized that they were splashing the remains of the food that didn't enter their digestive trace all over the table, floor, and unfortunately Lucy.

"You're really nith." Natsu lisped, from the effect of attempting to speak with his mouthful.

 _" _Well there goes the 1,000 jewell I managed to save on that gate key..."__ She thought as bone hit her square in the cheek.

"That Salamander guy was using a charm spell back there. It can attract people to you, even if it's against their own will. They were banned years ago though. To go that far just to be popular, what a creep. But when you barged in, the spell broke so this is my thanks." Lucy explained.

"Oh okay."

"Believe it or not, I'm a wizard too."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Although I haven't really joined a guild yet." Lucy said and she started to explain about magical guilds and what they mean for Fiore. Blah Blah Blah. She also went on and on about a certain guild that she wanted to join and how it would be so exciting for if she were able to and Happy looked at each other with a slightly annoyed look as she continued to ramble on. Happy had dropped a fish under the table and took that time to pick it up. No fish will go to waste, he would say.

Gray happened to be walking by, eating a large cup of lemon flavored shaved ice and he caught Natsu in the corner of his eye eating with Lucy. She seemed to be so excited talking to Natsu and he seemed to be enjoying whatever it was she was talking about?

 _" _Natsu and a girl showing mutual interest in each other?..."__ Gray thought as he continued to watch the scene.

 _"_ _ _She's pretty damn cute too. I'll just mind my business for now though. "It's getting pretty late so I'll just go to the inn."__

"That reminds me, weren't you guys looking for someone?" Lucy asked.

"We heard that a Salamander was coming through this town. A Salamander's a fire dragon so we thought it might be Igneel." Happy answered.

"But that guy was no Salamander, he couldn't even breathe fire." Natsu criticized.

"What kind of person would look like a fire dragon?" Lucy asked, sweatdropping.

"Igneel doesn't just look like a dragon, he is a dragon." Natsu answered.

"WHY WOULD A GIANT FIRE BREATHING DRAGON BE IN THE MIDDLE OF TOWN?!" Lucy questioned, while Natsu and Happy sat there with shocked faces.

"You mean to tell me you're just thinking of that now?!" Lucy was shocked herself at the lack of logical thinking from these two individuals. She put money down on the table and got up from her seat.

"Well I have to go now, enjoy the rest of your food." Lucy said and as she was walking away one of the waitresses was giving her an awkward look. She turned around and saw Natsu and Happy bowing down on all fours thanking her for the food.

"You're embarrasing me! Look, you helped me and I fed you. We're even now 'kay?" Lucy said with a red cloud dusting her face.

"But we weren't even trying to help her." Natsu whispered to Happy.

"Oh I know!" Natsu said as he dug into his pockets and pulled out his Salamander autograph.

"You can have this." He smiled

"I don't want it!"

…

Lucy was laying on a bench reading a copy of Sorcerer's Weekly.

"Fairy Tail is causing trouble again? How the heck did they manage to destroy a whole mountain? Oooooh I want to join them soooooo bad!" Lucy said to herself out loud as she shook with excitement.

"So you want to join the Fairy Tail guild huh?" A man asked and Lucy looked up from her magazine and recognized him as that 'Salamander'guy.

"You can't charm me again. That magic's weakness is awareness!" Lucy exclaimed and she got ready to defend herself.

"No it's not like that all, I was just over hearing you and thought to myself, hmmm she'd be a good fit I Fairy Tail." He said in a very convincing voice.

"Wait you're in Fairy Tail?" Lucy questioned, getting excited.

"That's right. And if you come to my party tonight I promise to put in a good word for you with our master." He answered. Hook. Line. And sinker. Lucy didn't have to hear another word from him.

"I'll be there, but only if you really help me get into Fairy Tail."

"You have my word."

 **Later that evening…**

Natsu and Happy were looking over a railing somewhere high up in the town that had a nice ocean view.

"It's getting late Happy, we should get going."

"Aye."

They were getting ready to leave but then they overheard two women talking about Salamander again. Under any other circumstance, Natsu would've just ignored it but it was something that they said that really caught his attention.

"I really wish I could've went to Salamader's party tonight."

"I heard he's a member for Fairy Tail."

"I know! He's such a famous wizard."

 _" _Fairy Tail, huh?"__ Natsu thought.

"Sorry Happy, but looks like we're going to be a little late." Natsu said

…

Meanwhile, 'Salamander had already taken all of the women that were at his party under control, Lucy included.

"You're an evil man! Using a fake name to capture all of these people!" Lucy cursed and he just laughed it off.

"Who cares? You won't be talking much when you're Bosco being a slave." He said.

"Hey Bora, what should we do with these?" One of his henchman asked, holding up Lucy's Celestial Spirit keys.

"I thought I told you not to call me that in front of others!"

"Hey! Give me back my keys!" Lucy demanded.

"Oh? She's got a few gold keys. They'll makes us quite a fortune." Bora answered

"I know you now! You're Bora the Prominence, a wizard that got kicked out of the Titan Nose guild for bad behavior. Now I see why." Lucy accused and he flipped his hair.

"That's me." Suddenly someone came crashing in through the roof top of the yacht. Everyone covered their eyes to avoid any debris flying into their eyes and mouths.

"What the?" Bora questioned and once the dust finally settled, Natsu was standing there with a scowl on his face.

"Natsu!" Lucy called out and he immediaely dropped to the ground due to motion sickness.

"That's so lame!"

…

"Where's Natsu?" Sasuke asked as Naruto came in through the door of the inn, belly swollen from being full of ramen.

"Is he not back yet?" Naruto asked.

"Last time I saw him, he was in a restaurant on a date with some chick." Gray commented and everyone froze.

"Natsu..." Sasuke started.

"On a date?" Naruto finished. A pregnant silence filled the air before a simultaneous "pffff" noise came from every single one of them.

"There's no way." Naruto said and they heard a huge crash and explosion come from outside. They all sighed "Natsu..."

…

On the shore of Hargeon, a gigantic wave caused by Aquarius, one of Lucy's Celestial spirit had forced the ship to run ashore.

"The least she could do is work on her attitude!" Lucy shouted and Happy was slumped over.

"Aye..." He uttered weakly.

"Prominence whip!" Bora declared and a stream of purple fire flowed from his hand. Like the name of the attack implies, he used it in order to try and detain Natsu. However Natsu opened his mout wide and began to chow down on the fire.

"What?! He can eat fire?!" Lucy questioned, amazed by Natsu's talent.

"Aye, we forgot to mention it but Natsu's a wizard too."

"Thanks for the meal." Natsu burped and fire began to surround him.

"You said you were from Fairy Tail huh?" Natsu asked as he threw off his burgandy jacket. His red Fairy Tail mark exposed and shining for all those to see.

"Well I've never seen you a day in my life!" He declared. Bora instantly became more and more afraid of him. In a panicked attempt to veer him off, he used his largest scale attack.

"Prominence Typhoon!" He declared and gigantic wall of purple flames cut off the entire shore and engulfed Natsu. However, just like the first time, Natsu easily just absorbed all of the fire that Bora put forth. Using all of the extra energy that he got, Natsu leaped to the point where he was several feed above Bora who happened to be using his Red Carpet to fly around with.

"Don't over do it Natsu!" Happy said as he took Lucy and got some distance away from the shore, much to her dismay.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu declared as a gargantuan breath of fire erupted from his mouth and engulfed Bora. Even from the distance they were at, Happy and Lucy could both feel the heat from Natsu's attack.

"How on earth is he so strong?!" Lucy asked as sweat was running down her forehead.

Once the fire had subsided, it left a giant crater in the sand. Happy and Lucy flew over towards Natsu and the crater and saw Bora who burned so badly he just looked like a human culpture made out of ash.

"His fire was so hot he turned the sand into glass?!" Lucy was absolutely stunned that a man this powerful was in the Fairy Tail guild that she had longed to join. Up until now, she hasn't even met anyone so powerful, let alone be friends with them.

"Don't ever pretend to be in Fairy Tail again." Natsu coldly warned.

"What the heck happened here?" A voice asked from behind the trio. They turned and saw Naruto, Sasuke, and Gray.

"Wait, you two are Naruto and Sasuke, two of Fairy Tail's most elite wizards!" Lucy accuused and Naruto rubbed the back of his head in embarrasment.

"Jeez, I didn't expect to be that famous already. So much for keeping a low profile..." Naruto said.

"Anyone who blows up a mountain should be famous." Gray said. Suddenly they heard the marching of many iron boots coming their way. When they looked it was the royal army of Fiore looking to take them into custody.

"There they are! They're the ones who was causing all of that trouble!" The leader of them all shouted as they began to pick up their speed.

"Aw man, now we have to run." Naruto groaned. Natsu grabbed Lucy's hand and said, "Welp, nothing we can do about it!"

"Hey what are you doing? Let go of me!" Lucy demanded and Natsu looked back at her and smiled, "You wanted to join Fairy Tail right? So come on!" She was stunned for a moment before shaking her hand free of his grip.

"Yeah!"

 **Somewhere in a remote location...**

There was a flashing blue light that shined very subtly from a cave. Inside it there were two people entrapped inside of a crystal, although it wasn't very clear on who was inside. A counter appeared near the top of the crystal that read,

"4d 23h 59m 59s"


	10. Welcome Home

**Chapter 10: Welcome Home.**

 **A/N: Once again, another chapter in less than a month! This a pretty long chapter, at least by my standards. But I wanted to fit the entire Lullaby arc into one chapter because the real fun is just about to begin. Chapter 11 should arrive by Tuesday so be on the lookout for that. Please review and Follow me, I really want to get to 500 followers and 200 reviews and I can't thank all of you enough for it. I love you guys!**

Natsu and the rest had run away from the army all the way from Hargeon to the outskirts of Magnolia.

"That… was… close..." Natsu panted as he bent over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. Everyone was breathing just as hard as Natsu after running so far for so long.

"I… think I'm gonna… die." Lucy did her best to try an recapture all of the oxygen and energy she lost from that insanely long run.

Gray grabbed Natsu by the collar and lifted him up. "You idiot! If you didn't make such a scene we wouldn't have had to run all the way back to Magnolia!" He barked.

"He was the one who started it so put me down ice princess!" Natsu barked right back and the two began their normal routine.

"How could those two complain about being tired and still have so much energy to fight each other?" Lucy questioned.

"That's Natsu and Gray for you..." Happy sighed, finally regaining his breath.

"Come on, we're only a short ways away. Let's get moving."

They began their trek once more down towards Magnolia and Lucy could hardly contain her excitement. 

_"My chance to join Fairy Tail ha_ _s_ _finally arrived!"_ She thought as she analyzed began to analyze each of them. 

_"I read that newspaper article about them from two years ago. I can't believe I just happened to run into them on my way here!"_ She thought. However her musings were interrupted when Naruto decided properly introduce themselves to her. 

"You seem to know who we are, but we don't know exactly who you are. What's your name?" Naruto asked with a warm smile. Lucy was nervous. She could tell that they were nice people, but to be around the people she's admired for quite a while so suddenly made her feel a bit giddy. 

"Uh, my name's Lucy." She answered nervously. 

"Lucy, huh? Well it's nice to meet you Lucy." He smiled and she smiled back. 

"That's the girl that I saw Natsu with back in Hargeon." Gray whispered to Naruto and immediately his eyes became full of mischief. His smile with troublemaker written all over it. 

"So, Lucy, I heard that you and Natsu were on a dinner date last night. Are you guys dating or what?" Naruto asked, grinning like the big prankster that he was causing Lucy to blush wildly. 

"N-no it wasn't like that at all! He saved me from that creep Salamander and I bought food for him as gratitude." Lucy quickly defender herself from the accusations, waving her hands and shaking her head in rapid motion. 

"Is that true Natsu?" Naruto asked and Natsu wore a thoughtful look. 

"Hmm, I think it went something like that." He mused. 

"THAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY HOW COULD YOU FORGET ALREADY?" Lucy demanded and all Natsu did was pick his ears in a nonchalant manner. Meanwhile Naruto was having the laugh of his life right now at the expense of this girl. Even Sasuke, who was not known for laughing much had a chuckle here and there. Gray just held a satisfied look the entire time. 

After a few more moments they were finally back in the shopping district of Magnolia. 

"So this is Magnolia." Lucy marvelled the town's atmosphere. Active and full of energy, just like the guild that was occupying this town. 

"They say the guild controls the atmosphere of the town." Gray said. 

"Aye! Happy guild, Happy town!" 

"I do have to ask, were you guys coming from a job when you came into Hargeon?" Lucy asked. 

"Nope, we're coming from a two year training trip." Natsu answered. 

"Training trip, for what? She asked. 

"To get stronger, Duh." He answered and Lucy smacked her forehead in annoyance. 

"I know to get stronger but why?" She asked. 

"To protect our contracts. Simple." Gray answered and everyone looked at Lucy with smiles. 

"You're gonna be a member of Fairy Tail soon, so you're our comrade too." Natsu said. 

"Right." 

"The first thing I want to do is get a place to live, we've basically been homeless for two years. And get a nice bowl of Ramen" Naruto said. 

... 

Inside the Fairy Tail guild, it happened to be one of their rare peaceful days. Everyone was either sitting around either eating, drinking, chatting or just a combination of the three. Master Makarov was sitting down on the counter enjoying the rare peaceful day that they were having. 

"It's even more peaceful than usual today isn't it Master?" Mirajane asked. Ever since Lisanna died, she started to work even harder as a server in the guild. Her demeanor had also changed from her mean, tough and aggressive tomboyish personality to one that was more lady like. Even her style of clothing changed to match her personality, now she was wearing a maroon colored dress with frills on them and matching shoes. One could even say that her smile radiated just as much as Lisanna's did. 

"Yeah, it's a bit too peaceful. That can only mean one thing..." He answered and Mirajane gave him a curious look. 

"Those fools are due back at any time." The doors of the guild hall slowly creaked open and the sunlight beamed into everyone's eyes. The only thing that could really be seen were the shadows of 6 individuals. 

"Who is that?" Levy questioned and a cloud passed over giving everyone's eyes a break. There stood the four young (and not so young) men and blue cat and blonde young lady who seemed to be shaking in her boss in the door way. 

"Yo, we're home." Natsu grinned from ear to ear, waving to his fellow guild mates that he hasn't seen in 2 years. Everyone was frozen, taking on the surprise that had just walked through the doors of their home. Hardly a second later they all rushed the group with tears in their eyes and their arms stretched out for an embrace. They all cried out, "Natsu! Gray!" 

They mauled the group with their love to the point where they had trouble breathing. They bombarded them with endless questions about their adventures and how much stronger have they gotten since they left. 

"Woah guys one at a time." Gray requested. Makarov cleared his throat loudly and everyone focused their attention towards him. 

"You know you kids caused a lot of trouble for me while you were gone." Makarov said in his strict parent tone. Natsu and Gray chuckled sheepishly while rubbing the back of their heads. However, Makarov smiled warmly at them and asked, "Did you have fun?"  
Natsu and Gray looked at him confusingly for a second. 

"Yeah!" They smiled.

"Alright then, Mira bring out the booze! Let's party!" Makarov declared and the guild erupted into cheers. Makarov noticed Lucy standing there, looking really nervous and asked, "How can I help you young lady?"

Lucy was about to answer him but Natsu decided to speak up for her instead. "Her name's Lucy gramps, she said she was dying to join Fairy Tail." He said making Lucy feel a bit bashful.

"Well, ummm…"

"That's great then! Mira get this girl a stamp!" Makarov ordered as he made his way to the railing on the upper floor in the guild hall. Mirajane approached Lucy with a stamp in her hand and asked her where she wanted her guild mark to be.

"It's really Mirajane in the flesh! I read about you in Sorcerer's weekly all the time! It's such an honor to meet you!" Lucy gasped, shaking in excitement as she held out her right hand. Mira smiled as she placed the stamp on the back of Lucy's hand and when she removed it, it left a bright pink Fairy Tail mark. Lucy hadn't felt so excited about anything her life as she looked at her guild mark with the biggest smile she could make. She ran over to Natsu holding up her right hand to show off her mark.

"Look Natsu, I got my guild mark now!" Lucy beamed.

"Yeah that's nice Luigi."

"It's Lucy!"

Makarov stood on top of the railing on the second floor of the guild hall and whistled as loud as he could to get the attention of his guild. Once he got their attention and they were all quiet, he cleared his throat and began to give a speech.

"Today is a very special day in Fairy Tail. We not only welcome back the dunderheads we all know and love from their two year tenure away from the guild, but to also welcome Lucy, our newest member!" Makarov said and the guild erupted into cheers once more.

"Although they might cause a massive amount of trouble. Although they might make me have to write countless letters of apologies to the Council. They are the prime examples of how wizards should live! They live with no fear, no hesitation, and live their life to the fullest! If we constantly worry about who is watching us and we will not leave ourselves room to grow as individuals! Because living freely… Is what Fairy Tail's all about!" Makarov finished and the guild erupted into the biggest cheer of the day.

They sang, they ate, they drank, and had the most merry time of their lives. Although they had to stop Natsu from getting into Alcohol a few times, based on a story that Gray told them. They shared stories of their adventures during the two years that they were gone.

"Yeah, we actually happened to run into Cana while she was out on a job once." Gray said.

"That was one of the funniest and probably the scariest time I've ever had around these guys." Cana hiccuped, drinking as she would do every single day.

"Don't even remind me..." Naruto said somberly.

"We almost died a few times during that trip." Gray said and everyone was shocked to hear that. 

"Was the training that harsh?" Makarov asked and Gray shook his head in decline. 

"Natsu punched Gray into the wall of a bath house once. Gray's head got stuck in the wall and all the ladies thought he was peeping. You can guess what happened next." Naruto snickered and everybody else laughed along with him. 

"I thought we would never speak of that again!" Gray yelled and everyone continued to laugh. 

"Hah! Gray you're so lame." Natsu taunted as he continued to laugh at the ice wizard's pain 

"What about that time Natsu got eaten by the same shark twice." Sasuke asked with a deadpanned expression, and everyone began to laugh even louder. 

"Why would you even bring that up?!" Natsu wept tears as the laughter was suddenly shifted in his direction. 

"You got eaten by the same shark twice and I'm lame?" Gray laughed at his rival and they began butting heads like they always do. Shooting off lame insults like "pinky" or "stripper". 

"I'm just realizing it but, where's Erza?" Sasuke asked

"She went out on a job yesterday actually, so you just missed her." Mira answered.

"It's because she's a man!" Elfman declared and everyone questioned, "What the heck does that even mean?!"

"I wanna fight Erza! I wanna show her just how strong I've gotten!" Natsu said excitedly

…

Almost a week had passed since those four returned and Lucy joined the guild. During this time Natsu had saved Macao from Mt. Hakobe and Lucy went on her first job to destroy a book called daybreak. Unfortunately the job didn't go so well because they didn't get paid. Natsu, Lucy and Happy were on their way back to Magnolia after 'completing' the job

"I could've gotten that 2,000,000 Jewell but nooooo." Lucy complained.

"You should've just let me burn the book but nooooo _I wanna read it first_." Natsu mocked Lucy right back.

"So it's my fault that you don't have a taste for literature?" Lucy spat back.

"Nope but it's your fault we didn't get paid." Happy said.

"I don't need your comments.." Lucy said hanging her head. They arrived to Lucy's recently purchased apartment and the group went their seperate ways. When Lucy opened the door to the lobby of her building the sight she saw was pretty peculiar. She saw Naruto banging on the first door to the right.

"Oi Sasuke do you have any soap I forgot to buy some and the shops are closed!" Naruto asked. He noticed Lucy standing in front of the main door of the lobby.

"Oh Lucy I didn't see you there, what are you doing here?" Naruto asked.

"I was just about to ask you the same thing, Naruto-san." Lucy responded and Naruto waved her off.

"Just Naruto is fine, we're comrades and I'm only like a year older than you. _Although that's not exactly true..._ " Naruto said. Suddenly the door Naruto was banging on opened and a bar of soap came flying out and struck Naruto right in the head.

"If you're going to bang on someone's door like that at least have better reflexes to dodge or catch that, that could have been a shuriken. Idiot." Sasuke said as he stepped out the room slightly. Naruto recovered and they immediately started butting heads.

"You tryna start something, chicken head bastard?" Naruto growled.

"Start? It's already over?" Sasuke said with an extremely smug expression.

"Grrrr I'm about to wipe that grin off your face." Naruto growled before a presence appeared behind them and said

"I'm going to wipe both of you off the face of the planet if you continue to fight in my lobby." It was the land lady, she was a pretty large, intimidating woman with short purple hair and she had facial hair. Right now she was wearing a regular pair of jeans with a white button up shirt, she was wearing black shades so nobody could see her eyes at the moment. Naruto and Sasuke immediately bowed and said

"I'm sorry. It won't happen again." The land lady just huffed and left the building.

"Jeez they're like Natsu and Gray, now I know where they get it from." Lucy said out loud.

"Don't get confused Lucy. Natsu and Gray were like that before we joined Fairy Tail." Naruto said and Lucy was startled by his answer. Sasuke didn't even say anything as he just went back into his place.

"Well it's getting late see you tomorrow neighbor." Naruto said as he jogged back to his door.

"Why do I get the feeling that I'm not going to like them being neighbors?" Lucy thought.

…

"WE'VE GOT TROUBLE! ERZA'S BACK" Loke shouted and many people in the guild gasped and shivered. Lucy took notice at the reaction to Erza's name and wondered why they were so afraid.

"Is she really that scary?" she asked

"As much as I hate to admit it, she's the guilds strongest female wizard. Even Natsu and Gray are afraid of her." Mira said and Lucy was surprised.

"Natsu and Gray are afraid of her? Is she some kind of monster?"

"Fairy Tail has five S-Class wizards. Out of the S-class wizards in our guild she's the fourth strongest. The ones being stronger than her are Mystogan, Laxus, and Gildarts in that order." Mirajane explained.

"But wait, what about Naruto and Sasuke, it's hard to believe that they're not S-Class wizards." Lucy asked.

"It doesn't matter how strong someone is. It's Fairy Tail's rule that anyone that wants to be S-Class must take the S-class wizard exam." Mira explained and Lucy understood the logic in it. She was about to ask another question but the arrival of a red haired woman carrying a gigantic horn on her back. When she dropped the horn it caused a tremor in the building.

"Uhhh what's that thing you got there Erza? A random guild member asked.

"It's the horn of a monster that I slew on my job, the locals decorated and gave it to me as a gift. Is there a problem?" she responded sternly and the guild member cowered in fear denying that there was any sort of problem.

"Mira, where is the master? Erza asked.

"He went to the regular meeting, he left yesterday so he should be back tomorrow. Erza something really special happened while you were gone." she answered and Erza tilted her head in confusion.

"What?" she asked as she saw a blue cat flying towards her calling her name. The blue cat flew right into the breast plate of her armor.

"Happy? Wait then that means..." Erza said as she turned towards the doors of the guild hall and her eyes widened.

"Yo Erza." Natsu greeted with his huge smile. There they were, the four who left two years ago finally returned. Erza felt ecstatic that they were back, she tackled them in a huge hug, making things very awkward for them. Lucy had to pull Erza off of them and save them from any more embarrassment.

"I know it's been two years but that was a little much don't you think? Gray asked rhetorically rubbing the back of his head in discomfort.

"When did you guys come back?" Erza asked.

"Almost a week ago. When we came Mira told us that you were out on a job." Naruto said.

"As much as I'd like to catch up, I'm afraid that there's trouble brewing. The dark guild Eisenwald is planning to use some kind of magic called Lullaby that was sealed away some time ago. If it was sealed away, it must not be good." Erza said.

"Lullaby is actually a demon from the Books of Zeref. It usually looks like a brown flute with a skull and three purple eyes. But its true form is that of a giant demon." Sasuke said and Erza was surprised.

"How do you know that?" she asked.

"While we were gone, I spent a lot of time researching Zeref and his creations."

"Alright we set out for Eisenwald tomorrow morning at eight o'clock sharp." Erza said.

"I'll come under one condition." Natsu said getting Erza's attention.

"You have to fight me when we get back." he said holding up his fist. Erza smiled at him thinking about how innocent Natsu used to be. _"His flame has certainly gotten stronger, I can tell even from here"_ she thought.

"You've got a deal Natsu, I acknowledge that you've gotten stronger." Erza said.

"Wow, Naruto, Sasuke, Natsu, Gray and Erza as a team. This might be the most dangerous team in the entire guild, no, the entire world!" Mirajane said in amazement.

...

The next morning everyone met up at the train station as planned.

"Ugh the train again... Can I just walk?" Natsu asked and Erza shook her head.

"The fastest way to get there is by train, so suck it up Natsu." Erza scolded.

"Oi Naruto can't you just use your flying whatever thingy?" Natsu asked and Naruto hung his head.

"I didn't mark the train stations..."

"Well enough talking, the train's gonna leave without us." Sasuke said and they all boarded. Everyone was up to their usual schtick while Erza gave them the whole rundown about also she thought Eisenwald was planning.

"Lullaby... just what're they planning to do with it? Surely it must be evil." Erza said as she clenched her fist in anger.

"They're planning to use it to kill the guild masters." Sasuke said non-chalantly while staring out the window. Erza was shocked and angry beyond measure. Of all people they were targeting the guild masters, if they wanted revenge why don't they target the magic council? Not that it makes it any better by doing so.

"How do you know that? Why are they targeting the guild masters?" Erza asked.

"My side effect tells me so." Sasuke smirking.

"Side effect? Uhhhh you do know what universe you're in right?" Erza asked.

"What are you talking about Erza-senpai?" Gray asked. Erza looked over and paled at the sight of Gray's face. He was making the anime style duck-face and Lucy was down right lost.

"He called Erza senpai? Why? I thought Gray was in the guild longer than any of us here." Lucy said.

"I'm surrounded by idiots..." Erza grumbled while she heard groaning coming from her right side.

"Seriously though, my side effect tells me what is going to happen." Sasuke said and Erza looked up curiously.

"How? are you like a psychic or something?" Lucy asked.

"I can't just see the future when I want to. It seems like I can only see the future when my rinnegan is active as well and even still it's pretty random, that's why I call it a side effect." Sasuke said, unconsciously putting his hand on his left eye.

"What else have you seen, since you've realized you had this 'side effect'?" Erza questioned.

"I have seen quite a few things, one being the Eisenwald. I figured that only myself and Naruto are the only people alive with these effects because of the six paths, another reason why I call it 'side effect'." he explained.

"Wait Naruto has a side effect too?" Lucy asked and he nodded.

"The ability to sense malicious intent. That's Naruto's side effect." Gray said.

"With the ability to sense malicious intent, and that extraordinary sensory abilities he has. It's almost impossible to sneak up on him. But that's ONLY if he is in chakra mode." Sasuke explained.

"Oh so that's why you said it probably has something to do with the six paths." Gray mused.

"All this six paths and chakra mumbo jumbo is confusing the hell out of me." Lucy complained

"Anyway, all we have to do is stop them before they follow through with their plan." Gray said relaxing in his underwear.

"PUT YOUR CLOTHES BACK ON!" Lucy yelled loudly. After about 20 minuets of traveling they arrived at station. They made it to the station safe and sound however there was something off. Someone was missing.

"Where's Natsu?" Lucy asked.

"I think he's still on the train." Gray said.

"He departed." Happy said waving to the leaving train.

...

Natsu was still on the train defeated by his motion sickness. Then a guy with pineapple shaped hair walked up to him and noticed Natsu's guild mark.

"Oh? What do we have here? A goody two shoes from one of those legal guilds. You know what we call you?" The person asked and then planted his foot into Natsu's face.

"FLIES THAT'S WHAT WE CALL YOU, FLIES!" he yelled and then suddenly the train came to a screeching halt.

"Hey you can't go pulling the emergency break like that!" An employee at the train station scolded Erza who pulled said break.

"Sorry it's for our comrade please understand." she responded

Natsu released some of his flame power and pushed the man away from him. "I don't know who you are and I don't care, but making a mockery of Fairy Tail earns you a personal beating pal." Natsu warned.

"A personal beating? Don't make me laugh, you really think you can beat me? I'm Kagayama, the right hand man of Erigor, the strongest wizard in Eisenwald." Kageyama boasted.

Iron Fist of the Fire Dragon. Natsu charged his flame covered fist towards Kageyama who didn't even move.

Guard Shadow. A bunch of shadow like tendrils came from the ground and guarded against Natsu's fist. Kageyama has secretly underestimated Natsu, he noticed this when his shadow actually began to crack. However, Natsu didn't continue with the attack, instead he jumped back.

"Heh, not bad, I didn't use even half my power there and your magic held up." Natsu boasted and Kageyama grit his teeth.

"Now I'll finish this."

Fire Dragon Ro- Natsu didn't get to finish his technique due to the interruption of the train conductor offer the intercom saying the emergency stop was a false alarm.

"Oh crap, we gotta settle this later." Natsu said as he grabbed his stuff and jumped out the window as fast as possible.

The rest of the gang had rented a magic four wheeler and were cramping up inside.

"Erza you're going too fast, you're going to overload the SE plug!" Gray yelled from atop the four wheeler.

"I have to move this fast or else we wont catch up to the train." She replied. When they finally caught up to the train they saw Natsu suddenly jump out of the train window and crashed into Gray.

"What are you doing you pink haired bastard?!" Gray questioned angrily, rubbing his head in pain.

"How was I supposed to know you would be there, ice princess? Natsu asked rhetorically.

"ENOUGH!" Erza scolded

"Yes ma'am." They said simultaneously while sitting on their knees.

"What happened on the train? I felt some of your magic power before we caught up." Sasuke asked.

"I was sick on the train and then some bastard kicked me in the face! Said he was Fukuyama from Eisenwald or something." Natsu explained and then Erza slapped him in the face.

"You Fool! They're the ones we're after!" Erza scolded as Natsu rubbed his cheek that has a red hand mark on it now. Erza strapped back on the SE plug and everyone piled into the car

"I think I'm gonna... Hurl" Natsu said groggily as his cheeks puffed up.

"NOT ON ME YOUR NOT!" Lucy screamed as she pushed Natsu back over to Naruto.

"Oh Lucy! I'm supposed to give you something but I can't remember what it was." Happy said and Lucy sweatdropped.

"What was the point in telling me then?"

After a while of traveling they finally reached Oshibana station where the train looked to be stuck in the station and a really large group of people standing outside the station.

"A train derailing? How did that happen?"

"Who could've possibly derailed the train?" were some of the murmurs they heard amongst the crowd. Erza was asking employees what the situation was inside but head butt them because they didn't answer quickly enough.

"At least give them a chance to speak..." Gray said.

"Ummm does she usually do this?" Lucy asked.

"That's Erza for you." Happy commented.

"Well, no time to waste here." Gray said as he slung Natsu over his shoulder, Sasuke gripping the back of Naruto's clothes and held him in his hand and they all trekked inside the station. They noticed all the imperial guards slumped over and defeated. They never stood a chance against a wizard guild. They arrived to train platform and saw the entire Eisenwald guild, seemingly waiting for them. Their leader really stood out as he was an extremely tall, lean-built and yet mildly muscular man with silver hair, which is held pointing upwards in spiky strands on top of his head, but hangs down to the left of his face in a distinctive tuft, partially covering it, and reaching down to his shoulders. His eyes are dark and he has an elongated face with sharp features and somewhat pointed ears, but seems to lack eyebrows. His eyes are circled by dark lines and each of them has a simple tattoo right below it, consisting of a pointed line going down vertically, crossed with two more, larger horizontal lines. The upper part of his body is similarly tattooed, but with much larger, intricated and blue-colored motifs, which take on spiraling forms, and adorn his shoulders, biceps, pectorals and back.

He also dons a torn Japanese-like outfit befitting his role as the shinigami. He is shown bare-chested, with all of his tattoos visible, and his lower body is covered in different layers of clothing: he sports a long, worn skirt, reminiscent of a hakama, below a darker, shorter cloth, held up by an even lighter and shorter one tied like a belt. He has a black scarf wrapped around his thin neck, with its edges hanging on his back and traditional geta sandals on his feet. His attire is completed by a pair of distinctive dark gloves, each adorned by a light "X" on the back, and by bandages wrapped around his forearms.

"Look what we have here, it seems the Fairy Tail flies have shown up." the man said from atop the train.

"I'm assuming you're Erigor." Erza said pointing towards the man.

"Indeed I am, and it's too late for you to stop us now! We're going to take away all the rights of others to show how the Council took ours away. If we can't have rights no one can!" Erigor declared and his guild mates cheered for him.

"You fiend! That's not going to give you any rights! Just what are you planning to do?" Lucy demanded and Erigor chuckled.

"Think about it. What does this station have?" Erigor asked.

"We already know what your true goal is so save the act." Sasuke said with a stoic expression and Erigor raised his eyebrow.

"Oooh, Sasuke Uchiha... I never expected to run into you. I'm honored that someone of your strength has been sent in an attempt to stop us. It seems like the Orange Spark is here as well. But it doesn't matter now, no one can stop us." Erigor said as he floated up to a lamp post.

"Woah did he just fly?!" Lucy questioned in shock.

"He uses wind magic, so it gives him the ability to fly." Gray said.

"Not that it matters to people who will be gone soon." Kageyama said and Natsu immediately recognized the voice and jumped up when he heard it.

"That voice..." Natsu started.

"That's the voice of the bastard that kicked me on the train!" Natsu yelled and everyone sweat dropped.

"So that's what he notices..." Lucy mumbled.

"Well I don't have anymore time to waste on you Fairy Tail flies. I've got a performance to play." Erigor said as he went to fly down the hallway but he was cut off by a wall of ice.

"Going somewhere?" Gray asked staring Erigor dead in the face. Erigor couldn't belive what just happened. He got cut off by a fly from one of those legitimate guilds. He got cut off by a wizard who uses maker magic, known as some of the slowest wizards in the magic community.

" _What incredible speed. Just what kind of training have they been under the past two years?"_ Erza thought. Sasuke sat on the floor crossing his legs and everyone else looked at him confused.

"Look at the amount of enemies we have to face, this isn't the time to relax." Erza scolded and Sasuke shrugged his shoulders.

"Gray this shouldn't be a problem for you should it?" Sasuke asked. Gray stood in his signature 'ice make' stance and smirked. "Not at all." He said as his magic energy began to flow in his hands.

Ice Make: Geyser. A giant geyser of ice erupted from the ground like a miniature mountain of sorts. It covered nearly the entire area of the train platform, effectively dismantling the train as well. Most of the Eisenwald members were taken out from this one attack.

"Wow… he took out so many people with one attack." Lucy said gazing at the miniature ice mountain. Erigor was absolutely livid, this nobody just took out nearly all of his guild members with a single attack. _"If I hadn't moved out the way I would've been a goner myself."_ he thought, then he was forced to dodge many spikes coming from the ice geyser, a few of them barely nicking him on his bare upper body.

"Oi Gray you're taking too long!" Natsu called out with Gray developing a mark of frustration. Shouting out fine he created two long swords made of ice.

"You guys mind cleaning up the rest of the stragglers that I didn't get?" Gray asked and the two girls nodded. The Eisenwald members faced the members of Fairy Tail.

"Wait a second, that guy looks familiar." Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes at Kageyama. Naruto, still dazed from motion sickness saw the blurry image of Kageyama. All he could make out was his pineapple shaped hair and just said the first thing that came to his mind.

"Shikamaru?" Naruto asked. "What are you doing here?"

"My name isn't Shika-whatever, it's Kageyama!" the Shikamaru lookalike declared.

"He does look like Shikamaru, and if he's the one who attacked Natsu, he also used shadows." Sasuke thought. _"I wonder if_ _Shikamaru is one of his ancestors._ _"_

Sasuke, Happy, Erza, a scared Lucy, and Naruto were face to face with the quite a few members of the Eisenwald guild. There was a pretty heavy tension in the air, but the ones feeling the most pressure were the members of Eisenwald.

 _"Even with our numbers, it'll be impossible to defeat them. Even Erza Scarlet is here. The only way we can defeat them is to force them into an ultimatum using the weakest link to our advantage. That will be our best bet, to attack the blonde girl."_ an Eisenwald member with whiskers named Byard thought as he turned his attention towards Lucy. _"We also need to strike before the Orange Spark has a chance to recover."_

"All members of Eisenwald follow my lead!" Byard ordered as he stretched his hand outward and a magic circle appeared in front of his palms. All of the Eisenwald members complied and followed Byard's actions and readied for battle. The leader of this force quickly aimed his magic circle at Lucy and everyone followed suit understanding what Byard was trying to accomplish.

"WHY ME?!" Lucy cried out as she did her best to shield herself by crossing her arms in front of her, and closed her eyes preparing for the worst. Feeling the pressure of magic colliding but not on her skin or anything she opened her eyes. Lucy was a bit taken back from what was in front of her. She saw what seemed like a purple aura surrounding her.

"So you're targeting Lucy as a way to gain leverage I see, Eisenwald truly is a cowardly guild. I will wipe you all out myself." Sasuke said as he let his Susanoo disappear.

"Don't kill any of them, Sasuke." Erza warned and he ignored her, slowly walking towards the crowd of dark wizards pulling out his sword.

"Is he really that strong to beat them all without using any magic?" Lucy asked.

"No way, that one guy can't handle all of us without magic, LET'S GET HIM" Byard declared and Eisenwald charged towards him. In the span of a single moment Sasuke appeared behind the entire crowd of wizards, the second his sword sheathed entirely all of the Eisenwald members went down. Gray regrouped with them, his ice sword disintegrating, leaving behind, Erigor's defeated body behind.

"Wow, I didn't even see what happened just now." Lucy said.

"I'm quite impressed Gray. You were able to defeat Erigor all by yourself."

"Well he's always been like that." Naruto said.

"Now... You're going to tell me where you got that flute from." Sasuke ordered. Byard smiled confidently and said, "I'll never talk."

Sasuke activated his Sharingan and looked down on him in the most intimidating face he could make. "I didn't ask if you would talk. I asked where you got it from." Sasuke said sternly.

"Woah he's kind of scary." Lucy said.

"That's Sasuke for you!"

" **All you humans are weak! I'll annihilate you all myself!"**

...

At the guild masters meeting all of the masters present were just sitting around eating food, drinking and enjoying themselves.

"You know Makarov, the council is worried about your guild, they're too destructive." Master Bob said.

"Yeah, they might end up destroying an entire city one day." Master of Quatro Cerberus said.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Makarov said with a slight slur in his voice. Then a bird carrying an envelope and calling out "Master Makarov". He took the envelope from the bird and thanked it for the delivery. He placed his pointer on the envelope and a green magic circle appeared and a holographic projection of Mirajane appeared.

"What do you think about our poster girl, boys? Isn't she great?" Makarov boasted.

"Master, I thought I should report this, I don't know if it's good news or bad news. Natsu, Gray, Erza, Naruto, and Sasuke formed a team together." she said and Makarov paled intensely and his hair started to fall off his head.

"Looks like the council has a right to be worried." Goldmine said

"Sasuke alone could destroy an entire city! WITH THOSE 5 TOGETHER THEY COULD PROBABLY DESTROY AN ENTIRE ISLAND!" Makarov yelled.

…

" **All you humans are weak! I'll annihilate you all myself!"** a voice boomed from within the train station. Suddenly a large brown creature erupted from the Lullaby flute. Citizens fled from the station and the city in fear of the massive creature as it was larger than the station itself. When the creature came to be, the train station was nothing but rubble at that point. The Fairy Tail team stared at the giant creature while it stood there in all it's glory.

"So this is Lullaby's true form." Sasuke said as he took in the demon's form.

"We have to protect the people of this town! Please help me evacuate them!" Lucy cried out.

"That won't be necessary." Naruto said and the women looked at him confused.

"I'm going to take this guy down in one shot." he continued.

" **A mere human taking me down in one shot?! That's a riot! I'm going to kill you just f…"** Lullaby started but was immediately silenced by being completely split in two in a vertical manner. Erza, Lucy, and Lullaby were in utter shock at what just happened. Lullaby was split in two by a massive shuriken made of wind, that same shuriken coming back towards him. Once it reached him, the demon was enveloped in a huge explosion.

"Too bad for you. I'm no mere human." Naruto said with a smirk on his face as Lullaby screamed in terror.

"I'm the Number One Hyperactive Knucklehead Ninja, Naruto Uzumaki!" he declared and everyone sweatdropped. The explosion finally settled and the dust was clearing.

" _Honestly, how could someone like that, really be so strong?"_ Erza thought as she looked at the sight of what happened. Not even a single trace of Lullaby was left. There was just a gigantic pit where the monster used to be.

"Who would have thought that a goofball like him would be strong enough to destroy a demon from the books of Zeref with no effort?" Lucy asked.

"You have no idea." Sasuke said.

"It's good that you defeated Lullaby and all but what are we going to do about that?"Gray asked referring to all the rubble and property damaged caused by this fight.

"We'll figure it out later, but we seriously need to get the heck out of here before the council comes!" Natsu exclaimed as he grabbed Lucy's hand and was about to make a run for it. However unfortunately for them it was too late, they were all surrounded by the magic council.

"Hold it right there!" the magic council captain ordered.

"No worries guys, everyone just grab on to me." Naruto said and everyone complied while Lucy was a bit hesitant.

"Wait, what are you about to do?" Lucy asked.

"Just trust me okay?" Naruto said with a reassuring voice, and she nodded. She grabbed on to him and the very moment she did, they all vanished. The magic council was completely dumbfounded at what just happened. "Where did they go?" the captain asked and his squad had no answer.

…

Back in the Fairy Tail guild there was an unusual quiet in the guild that day. Of course with the louder members being gone for the time being, it certainly seemed like a much more civilized guild than when they are there.

"So what do you think they'll destroy this time?" Cana asked Mirajane, cradling her barrel of booze.

"Hmmm, it depends, but I don't think they'll destroy more than a building or two." she replied and Cana laughed out loud.

"You sure have a lot of faith in those idiots."

"Well they are with Erza and Lucy so surely they must be kept in check to some extent." Mira answered.

"By the way where did you get that thing around your neck?" Cana asked referring to the necklace that Mira was sporting now. It was a three pronged kunai with a light orange handle and shiki formula written on it. She held it up slightly above her breasts staring at before answering, "Oh this? Naruto gave it to me." Suddenly the kunai began to glow, surprising both girls. Then in that same instant, out popped the group who went to take on Eisenwald.

"Woohoo we're back in no time flat!" Happy exclaimed as he and Natsu high-fived each other.

"Woah how did we get here so fast?" Lucy asked while frantically looking around the guild.

"Because of this I assume?" Mirajane said holding up the special kunai.

"Oh you turned it into a necklace? That's awesome!" Naruto complimented.

"But anyway, to explain what just happened, I used a technique called the Flying Thunder God. It allows me to be able to instantly move to wherever I place these markings." He explained while holding up a kunai to show everyone.

"That must have took a long time for you to create. That's a really useful technique, is there any weaknesses to it?" Erza asked and Naruto shook his head.

"The only weakness is probably the jutsu itself. I can only teleport to where the marks are, so if someone could figure out where I would jump to, I'll be at a disadvantage. Other than that, there's no limitations for how far I can warp. Just can't jump through dimensions or anything like that." he explained.

"Anyway, you guys came back on such a short notice, did something happen?" Cana asked.

"Yeah, this one destroyed the train station, so no trains could run anyway." Erza said, glaring at Naruto whoo rubbed the back of his head sheepishly before coming to a realization.

"Hey he destroyed it first!" Naruto declared while pointing towards Gray who was about to argue but got cut off by Natsu.

"You should've seen it! Naruto brought down this giant monster in one attack, and left a huge crater in the station!" Natsu said ecstatically, Happy adding in sound effects while he acted out the explosions.

"Oh I bet the master would love to hear that story." Mirajane said and Natsu smirked with an evil gleam in his eye directed at Naruto. Naruto flinched and his eyes became wide as dinner plates.

" _Not so nice, when someone's blaming you for something is it?"_ Natsu thought.

"Karma… She be a cruel mistress." Gray said.

"You think he's still mad about what happened with Ultear?" Sasuke whispered to Naruto, who was paralyzed by the scene.

"Uhm would you please not tell the master about that please?" Naruto asked, almost begged everyone.

"The council already knows about what you did, there's not even a point in trying to hide it." Erza said sternly and Naruto hung his head in shame.

"I knew I should have just let someone else do it..." Naruto mumbled as he looked at the contents of his wallet.

"Well I'm going to go home to rest up, I''ll see all of you tomorrow." Natsu said as he ran out of the guild with Happy in tow.

"Rest up? Rest up for what?" Naruto asked.

"Natsu and Erza are going to fight tomorrow, don't tell me you forgot already." Sasuke responded and Naruto rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Oh yeah… I forgot..."

 **Next Chapter #11: The Ultimatum!**


	11. Uzumaki Captur

**Chapter 11: Uzumaki Captured!**

 **A/N: Guys I'm so sorry that I took so long to update. I know I have excuses every time I take a long time to update but these things are seriously happening in my life. Between a new semester in college and putting up with not having power after the hurricane for a week and so many other things that slowed down these chapters have happened. I hope my writing skills haven't diminished so I really hope you guys enjoy and I love all of you for sticking with me for this long.**

 _ **During the fight with Eisenwald...**_

 _"This is bad. Really bad."_ Lilian thought as she was facing off against two individuals. He has pale skin with short spiky blue-greyish hair, a full beard, and a long horn above his left eye. He has big hands and a burly physique accompanied with a towering height that reached over two meters. He wore a pale blue shirt with back cuffs and a high collar over which he wore another darker appendage with a grey sash wrapped around his waist. He also wore grey pants and black, flat shoes on his feet which were upturned at the toes. This man's name was Kinshiki. The other man, Momoshiki had a similar appearance to Kinshiki with the exception of his hair being tied in a pony-tail and he had a much smaller frame than his partner.

 **(A few moments before...)**

Lilian had been up in the northern mountains of Fiore on a mission to collect some medicinal herbs for the hospital. Over the course of two years Lilian's body had grown a bit more mature and became more curvaceous. She grew about an inch taller since then her face was rid of the baby fat that she had prior.

"Naruto and the rest must have returned to Fairy Tail by now. Maybe I'll pay them a visit soon." She said as she filled her basket with these purple plants. She was about to pick up the last herb in the patch to place in her basket but she froze. She stood straight up and reached around her back under her coat and pulled out her large boomerang. She turned around glared at the two individuals standing before her. Her eyes shifted from the normal gray color that they were to the bright blue of the Tenseigan.

"So you indeed are the one who set the lost chakra free. You will be valuable to us." Momoshiki smirked and he motioned for Kinshiki to attack Lilian. Kinshiki used his chakra to create a long sword that was red in color.

 _"Red chakra?"_ Lilian observed as she used her boomerang to parry each of the blows that Kinshiki would send her way. Despite the size of the boomerang she's able to swing it around with great ease. The edges of her boomerang were also as sharp as any blade, making it to be a very dangerous weapon. Lilian had problems dealing with Kinshiki's brute strength and not to mention his speed was nothing to laugh at either.

"Why is the other one just standing there? I don't think I can handle this guy alone, let alone both of them. I need to escape and warn them." Lilian thought. She used her powers in order to separate herself and Kinshiki and tried to make a break for it. However Momoshiki got in her way and held out his left hand. An immense fire blast emerged from his right hand onto Lilian at point blank range. If it weren't for her transforming into her chakra mode at the last second, she probably couldn't have gotten away with minimal damage.

"That was such a potent fire jutsu! Its clear they don't want me escape." She thought as he she brought her three truth seeking orbs together and they formed together to make a large bardiche. ( **A/N: It's a large polearm with a curved blade look it up.)**

 _"I'll try a large scale attack and escape in the confusion then."_ She thought as the bardiche started to glow a golden color.

"Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion!" She declared as she swung the spear in a 360 degree motion in order to hit both of them. A golden beam exchanged from the weapon and left a huge trail of destruction in its path. After spinning and cutting off the top of several mountains that were nearby her spear stopped in its tracks.

"What?" She gasped, baffled that her attack was stopped in its tracks. When she looked over to the edge of the weapon, she saw Momoshiki stopped it with one hand and the chakra began to flow into it.

"This is how it's done." Momoshiki taunted as the bardiche dropped to the ground and reverted back to truth seeking orbs. He held out his left hand and a golden glow began to engulf it.

 _"I have to dodge it!"_ She thought but she was one step too slow got stuck by several red senbon in various spots.

"Shit, he hit my chakra points!" She cursed and her chakra mode deactivated causing her truth seeking orbs to disappear as well.

"Don't worry. I will not kill you. Not yet." Momoshiki smirked as he released the power many times stronger than what she attacked him with. She screamed and the explosion engulfed the entire mountain, leaving a gigantic near bottomless pit.

…

A large crowd assembled in Magnolia not too far off from the Fairy Tail guild hall.

"Place your bets here, put your money where your mouth is. Come on!" Cana called out to everyone. She was sitting in front of two buckets, one with Erza's name on it and one with Natsu's name. Erza's bucket was full of cash but Natsu's barely had anything at all. In fact, the only person that bet on Natsu was Naruto.

"I know he's your student and all but the odds aren't exactly in his favor." Cana said and Naruto smirked.

"Even if he struggles to beat Erza, there's one thing that I can bet on." Naruto said and Cana looked at him with confusion.

"I'm extremely lucky." Naruto said with a thumbs up, basking in his glory. Cana could do nothing but just dumbly nod and go back to being a bookie.

"You had better not hold back on me Erza." Natsu smirked, beaming with confidence.

"I wouldn't dream of it." She returned the banter as she requipped into her flame empress armor.

"That's Erza's flame empress armor!" Happy gasped. He turned to Cana and immediately reversed the bet he was going to place on Natsu on to Erza.

"Some confidence you have!" Lucy berated the blue feline.

"Come on Erza at least give Natsu a fighting chance!" Elfman almost pleaded for the fire wizard.

"Oh don't worry about me, I'll be just fine." Natsu beamed with confidence. Makarov came between the two combatants dressed in black and white stripes. He raised his hand in the air and asked both participants if they were ready to battle. When they both nodded, he brought his hand down in a chopping motion and called for the match to begin.

Natsu wasted no time in trying to speed blitz Erza but her reaction time was indeed worthy of her title, S-Class. She blocked his fire fist with her sword and parried him by knocking him away. It was her turn this time to rush him and she had Natsu on the defensive. He had to dodge several slice and stab attempts from the armored female wizard. She attempted to go for a slice on his head and Natsu caught the sword with his hands. Using his brute strength he caused her to lose her balance. He inhaled deeply and his stomach swelled.

Fire Dragon's Roar! He let out a roar on Erza at point blank distance. The heat from the attack was enough to make everyone in the audience sweat a great deal.

"It's too hot! Gray cool me off!" Lucy exclaimed and Gray placed his hand on her forehead and released some of his magic power.

"Did I get her?" Natsu wondered and once the dust cleared all that was there was a metal trash can.

"What?!" He gasped. He felt a presence behind him and one of Naruto's special kunai came from his sleeve and he blocked Erza's attempt at a sneak attack.

"Where did she learn how to use substitution?" Naruto asked, baffled by Erza's move.

"It seems like we weren't the only ones training." Gray smirked.

"I'm impressed Natsu, your reaction time has improved greatly since we last had a bout." Erza complimented.

"Your should pay more attention instead of complimenting me." Natsu smirked. She looked down for a moment and before she knew it, her feet were ankle deep in melted earth.

She jumped out of it before it solidify and kicked off her boots. Her legs were burnt but thanks to the flame empress armor, she took minimal damage. However before she could have time to think about her next move Natsu was already on her case and advancing his attack. Entertaining his flurry of punches and kicks, her movements were smooth and graceful. Then she thought that it would be a good time to go on the offensive. Natsu shot a right hook towards Erza and she caught his fist and forced it to shape into the rat seal. Sasuke and Naruto's eyes widened when she succeeded in this action and so was Natsu.

Erza stuck her sword in the ground as Natsu tried a round house kick to her head and ducked under it. She followed up by using her sword as leverage to raise her self into the air and when Natsu tried to grab her and pull her back down, she met his hand and formed the snake seal using his hand. Natsu held tight onto her hand and kicked her in her midsection sending her up into the air. In mid air Erza formed the tiger seal and three more Erzas sprang into life.

"Not only is her taijutsu exceptional, but she can use ninjutsu now as well?" Sasuke asked in quite a shock.

"That's so awesome..." Naruto praised as he was mesmorized by Erza's grace.

Natsu was grinning, he was having so much fun since Erza wasn't going easy on him. He battled against the four scarlet haired wizards doing his best to dodge all their attacks. However Erza, being the elite wizard she was had been able to nab him a few times and was actually able to surround Natsu.  
Natsu smirked and said, "Fire Dragon's explosive circle!" He enveloped himself in a ball of fire And then that fire expanded at fast rate enveloping Erza and all her clones.

The real Erza retreated a little bit to no avail her body was grabbed by a large hand made entirely of flames.

"What!? He grabbed me with his flame!?" Erza thought as she began to be dragged towards Natsu.

"Sorry Erza, but this is gonna hurt." Natsu grinned as he coated his right hand in flames. As he was about to strike Erza his flames suddenly disappeared.

"What the?" Natsu questioned.

"Looks like we've got company." Sasuke said.

"My, my, everytime I come to Fairy Tail there's something going on." A woman's voice said from behind Erza. Erza turned around to see Ultear, of the magic council with a bunch of anthropomorphic frog magic council officers. Ultear showed up in form fitting battle gear with the same color way as the magic council. Naruto meanwhile had a tired look on his face upon seeing Ultear.

"What's Ultear and the magic council doing here?" Makarov asked.

"For eleven counts of property damage, Naruto Uzumaki, you're under arrest!" One of the officers announced and the whole guild fell in shock.

"So they found out about the Eisenwald incident huh..." Gray said with a sweat drop.

"It can't be avoided. After all, Naruto caused most of the damage in the train station." Sasuke added.

"I understand the officers being here, but why you?" Naruto asked.

"Awww what's the matter? You don't like me?" Ultear asked playfully and Naruto looked away.

"Well I wouldn't exactly call myself a fan..."

"I'm also here in case you try to resist. If you come along quitely, I promise to give you ramen on the way." In the blink of an eye Naruto was sitting in the carriage waiting to be carried off. Everyone that was around sweatdropped at his actions and called him an idiot.

"Works everytime." Ultear smiled as she got in the carriage too.

"I'm surprised that Natsu didn't argue or even try to stop them." Gray said.

"That's because I already placed him in a genjutsu in order to prevent that." Sasuke said and everyone looked at Naruto and saw it was true. He was on the floor unconscious, sleeping like a baby.

"Is it really okay for us to not testify against his arrest?! He destroyed that property to save lives!" Lucy protested and Makarov refuted her.

"It's only a formality Lucy, there's nothing to worry about." He said to quell her nerves.

…

Along the ride, Naruto was rocking back and forth waiting for his cup ramen. Ultear returned from the front carriage with a steaming hot cup of instant ramen. Naruto had stars in his eyes as his stomach rumbled and as he reached for the ramen, Ultear pulled it away.

"How are you going to eat with your hands cuffed?" Ultear asked and Naruto frowned at his cuffs.

"Say aahhh" Ultear said as she tried to hand feed Naruto the food herself. Naruto stared at it for a moment and then looked at Ulltear

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Naruto asked.

"Do you want me to be mean and evil instead? Because I can do that if you want." Ultear said as her expression became sinister. Naruto had a bead of sweat drip down his brow for a moment before her expression returned to normal.

"Now, say ahhh. It's getting cold." Ultear said and Naruto shrugged.

" _Well It's better than the alternative I guess."_

 _Ahhhh_

She stuck the chopsticks full of noodles into his mouth and he slurped it up with a blissful expression.

"Ultear-sama, is it really okay to be fraternizing with the prisoner?" An officer asked.

"Do you think it's okay to be interrupting me while I'm doing something important?" She responded and the officer immediately turned away from Ultear.

" _She's got quite the authority around the council._ " Naruto thought as he took in another spoon full of noodles into his mouth. Suddenly the carriage came to a complete halt, causing a little of the ramen to spill to the floor.

"What's going on out there!?" Ultear questioned as she began to step out of the carriage.

"There is a mysterious person in our path ma'am." An officer saluted to her and Naruto followed her out of the carriage.

Ultear walked around to the front of the carriage and saw Momoshiki and Kinshiki carrying an unconscious Lilian standing in the dead center of the path.

"Who are you?" Ultear questioned.

"You have something that does not belong to you." Momoshiki answered.

"If you do not move we are authorized under Article 27 of law enforcement to use force against those preventing the transport of a convict." One of Ultear's guards warned and Momoshiki still refused to move.

"Attack squadron ready." The same guard ordered and 5 rune knights stepped in front all wielding the five different elements.

"Fire."

All of them shot their elemental attacks towards Momoshiki who yawned at the attack.

"These humans are so pitiful." He said as he held up his left hand and easily absorbed the attack.

"They're quite troublesome..." Ultear thought.

Naruto came around the corner and asked what's going on. He noticed Momoshiki and Kinshiki and immediately narrowed his eyes in suspicion. But then his eyes focused on the body that he was carrying. His face filled with anger when he realized that it was Lilian that they were carrying.

"What did you do to Lili!?" Naruto demanded an answer from Momoshiki. The latter smiled sadistically, holding his right hand up and said, "If you hand over the fox, maybe I'll tell you."

 **"He's building up a whole lot of chakra in his right hand. Bra** **c** **e yourself Naruto!"** Kurama warned.

 _Boom!_

The entire escort was enveloped in a large, firey explosion. "You took too long to answer. So now I'll ask again." Momoshiki said.

When the dust cleared it showed that the group was unharmed because they were being covered Kurama's chakra head.

"I was a bit slow to break those cuffs." Naruto cursed as he saw that his clothes were a little bit damaged and some dust trickled upon him

" _He was able to remove the cuffs by himself? Interesting…_ " Ultear thought as she smirked darkly.

"Is everyone okay?" Naruto asked as he looked back at Ultear and immediately his faced turned red. Ultear confirmed that there weren't any casualties nor was there anyone injured.

"Yes, we're fine. You have our thanks." Ulrear answered as she looked around at her squad who were all staring at her with flushed faces.

"Why is everyone looking at me like that?" She asked as she looked down at herself. The whole front of her outfit was completely burned away leaving her chest completely bare. She calmly covered her breasts with her arms as well as a blush creeped up on her face. Naruto tossed his jacket towards Ultear who swiftly put it on, leaving Naruto in just a white undershirt.

"Hand over the fox, that is if you want this girl back alive." Momoshiki threatened. Naruto frowned and thought about his choice. It didn't take him very long however because saving Lilian was his top priority.

"If I come with you, promise to let her go." Naruto demanded and Momoshiki smirked.

"Consider it done." He said as he snapped his fingers and Kinshiki walked over to the group and once Kinshiki let Lilian down he put handcuffs made of red chakra on Naruto.

"He punctured my chakra point..." He thought as he winced in pain causing his chakra mode to dissipate. A red chakra chain grew from the center of the cuffs and Kinshiki was going to drag Naruto along.

"Ultear, go back to the guild with Lili, she's badly wounded she might die if she doesn't get help soon. Tell them I was captured. Sasuke will know what to do." He whispered as he got tugged along. He stopped for a moment and looked back at Ultear and smiled.

"Oh, and thanks for the food."

 **(1 hour later)**

The guild was patiently waiting for Naruto's return, well... Except for one person.

"Untie me right now!" Natsu demanded as he struggled against the pole.

"How many times do we have to tell you that we're not untying you until Naruto comes back, huh, you idiot?" Gray asked.

"What did you call me!?"

"That's enough out of the both of you!" Erza yelled And they both became tame before anything could escalate. Suddenly the guild doors burst open and it was Ultear and a member of the magic Council carrying Lilian through the door.

"Lili!" Erza, Natsu and Gray all cried out.

"What is the meaning of this? Where's Naruto?" Sasuke asked.

"Naruto's been captured by people who kept referring to him as the fox." Ultear answered.

"What!?" Natsu questioned as he began to struggle twice as much as before.

"Where is he now!? We're going to save him! Someone untie me right now!" Natsu shouted.

"I don't know where they went. They stepped through some kind of portal and disappeared." Ultear answered.

"Space-time ninjutsu huh?" Sasuke said to himself. He sat down and crossed his legs in a meditative pose. He closed his eyes and began to focus.

"Sasuke what're you-" Erza asked but he shshed her saying that he needed to focus.

"I need to focus on pinpointing Naruto's chakra and find whatever space time they took him to." He said. During the mean time, Erza removed Natsu's magic restraints and untied him from the pillar.

"In the mean time, take Lili to Porlyusica and be quick, she's knocking on deaths door." Erza ordered and Lucy and Elfman volunteered to carry her there.

"Tell me anything that you know about them, I don't care if it's just their facial features, something!" Natsu demanded from Ultear.

"The only distinct features that they had was they had white eyes with no pupils and they could absorb attacks and dish them back out many times stronger." Ultear said.

"Alright I found him." Sasuke announced.

"Natsu, Gray, Erza, and Mirajane, you're coming with me." Sasuke said as a large black and purple portal opened up in the center of the guild.

"Do your best, and please... Come back alive." Makarov said and Natsu have him a thumbs up.

"No worries, we'll come back with Naruto safe and sound you can bet on that!"

"Alright let's go." Sasuke said.

"Wait." Ultear called to them. She turned away from the rest of the male members of the guild and unzipped Naruto's jacket off her person. Using one hand to try, key word, try and cover up her bare chest she handed Mirajane Naruto's jacket. Leaving little to the imagination, the rest of the males had nose bleeds upon seeing Ultear's figure.

"Tell him, his trial will be held at another date." She said and Natsu accepted the jacket from her and grinned.

"Will do." He responded.

Gray and Erza jumped in. Followed by them were Natsu with Happy riding his shoulder. Sasuke jumped in after them and Mirajane was about to jump into the portal but Elfman called to her.

"Mira-nee, are you sure? You haven't even used your take over since Lisanna died." Elfman asked.

"Yes, I'm positive. After all, I have all of you who believe in me. I'm not afraid anymore, I'm ready to overcome my fears and smile, just like Lisanna used to." Mirajane declared with confidence.

"After all, this is more important to me than you know..."

 **(Flashback)**

During the four day stretch between Natsu's group's return and the Eisenwald incident, Naruto and Sasuke went on their own job by themselves. Nothing too major, just to wipe out a couple of bandits that had been hanging around some mountains. They completed the job, more-or-less to pay for rent that month. They elected not using the flying raijin to return home because; one they weren't that far away from the guild, two, they wanted to enjoy the peace before going into the chaos that the guild was.

"It's already been two years, but we haven't heard anything about our enemies yet." Naruto stated.

"Are you doubting the information?" Sasuke asked.

"No it's not that… I just have a really bad feeling about this…" He answered with a doubtful expression. Then his stomach growled extremely loudly and he started drooling while rubbing his belly.

"Maybe some ramen can help." He said and Sasuke sighed.

"But still, do you think it's possible?… That the Akatsuki really could have reformed?"

"It's possible, or maybe they unknowingly copied their motif not knowing who the Akatsuki are." Sasuke answered.

"Those who don't know their history..."

"Are doomed to repeat it."

"Over here guys." Mirajane called out from behind them taking them out of their thoughts. She was holding a wooden basket that seemed to have a bunch of green herbs in it.

"What's that you got there?" Naruto asked as he tried to see what was in the basket but it was closed.

"We were running low on some medicinal herbs so the master told me to go and get some while he's out." She explained.

"So how was the job? Was it difficult?" Mirajane asked.

"It was okay, I guess..."

"You guess? Something happened right?"

"Treat me to some ramen and maybe I'll tell you everything you wanna know." Naruto grinned from ear to ear.

"You've got yourself a deal blondie." Mirajane huffed like her old self.

"Oh wait, they don't have a ramen shop in Magnolia, and Lisanna isn't around anymore..." Naruto's expression became downcast. Mira swallowed a lump in her throat at the mention of Lisanna's passing. It had been two years since she died, and she felt that she had gotten over it for the most part. But she knew it would be impossible to be unfazed by the mention of her beloved little sister. But she wanted to wear the same smile that Lisanna wore, even in the toughest times.

"Actually in the two years that you were gone, they built a ramen shop in town. It's not very popular yet so we should be able to get served pretty quickly." Mirajane said and Naruto's eyes lit up.

"Okay let's go right now then, I'm starving!" Naruto said as he grabbed her arm and zoomed past Sasuke heading to the closest ramen shop possible. Mirajane begging him to slow down the whole way as they, well Naruto, ran at a high speed. She was unable to hold on to the basket of herbs and dropped it. Fortunately the basket was closed so none of the contents were lost. Sasuke just sighed as he picked up the basket and carried it towards the guild.

A few moments later, Naruto had stopped dead in his tracks in front of the local ramen shop in Magnolia. His stomach growled loudly almost as if Kurama himself was angered inside of him.

"So are ya ready to treat me? I think I might have 10 bowls today" Naruto said smiling. But he received no response. He looked down to see his ramen ticket in a daze.

"Maybe I overdid a little?" Naruto said out loud. This triggered a tick mark to appear on Mirajane's head and a dark, sinister energy began to radiate from her. Naruto sensed the energy and began to sweat waterfalls. He cowered in fear, raising his arms over his head in a feeble attempt to block the onslaught that was soon to come.

"Please don't hurt me." He pleaded quietly, but unfortunately his pleas fell on death ears. Even the nicest girls can be vicious sometimes.

" **Hahahaha, I didn't think anyone could beat you worse than the pink haired vixen."** Kurama laughed heartily.

One terrible beating later, they were both sitting at the counter in front of bowls of steaming hot ramen. This ramen shop was similar to Ichiraku, the only difference being that you can't actually see the chefs making the food as there was a curtain seperating them and the customers. Apparently This shop had a secret recipe and didn't want anybody stealing it, or so the rumors say. Mirajane had gotten a fresh bowl of salt ramen with extra menma, she was eating peacfully while Naruto sat there, with a steaming head full of lumps.

" _And here I thought she changed since the first day I met her. She was such an asshole at that time. Just look at her, smiling and eating like nothing happened. It pisses me off more than that bastard Sasuke..."_ Naruto thought with a scowl in his expression. Although he wouldn't dare argue back or attack a woman because he valued his internal organs. He continued to scowl at her, but after a while as he finally got the chance to truly take in her features, that scowl turned into an almost far away look. He got lost in her luxurious silver hair, her soft lips, he stared for what seemed like forever until he heard the sound of his name being called.

"Naruto, are you okay? You've kind of been staring into space for a while now. You didn't even touch our bowl." Mirajane said which shook him out of his Mira induced trance. His heart was racing, even if she didn't catch that he was staring at her. He exhaled deeply, trying to relax as he looked down on the large helping of miso ramen with pork, there was no steam coming from it.

" _How long was I staring at her? Why was I?"_ Naruto thought.

" **You llllliiiiiike her."** Kurama teased and Naruto's eye twitched.

"Shut up you giant furball!" Naruto shouted and all he received was a a hearty laugh from nine tailed fox.

"Oh, sorry, I was just thinking about something. Thanks for the food!" He said as he broke apart his chopsticks and began to completely annihilate the meal within a few seconds.

"Wow you can put it away even faster than Natsu." Mirajane said as she watched the spectacle of Naruto downing a large bowl of ramen in the span of a few seconds.

"Ith been a sthrethful day, and I didn't eat sinth yetherday. What do you expect?" He responded as he chewed his food, making him unable to pronounce words properly.

"Don't talk with your mouth full. That's rude!" Mirajane scolded. He placed the bowl on the table after licking it clean. Releasing a very satisfied breath, he held out his bowl and said, "Another helping please!"

"Sooooo, are you going to tell me what happened?" She asked in a sing-song voice.

…

Naruto talked about the job that he and Sasuke went on earlier that day. They had gotten an emergency request from Ultear personally and as she would put it, "It was a job that only they could handle. Not wanting to get on the Council's bad side, they accepted the request. The job was to investigate some suspicious people who were wearing black cloaks with red clouds.

"Black cloaks with red clouds? I don't think I know a guild with attire like that." Mirajane said and Naruto nodded.

"The only thing that Sasuke and I could find out about them is that one of their members is a rain dragon slayer. We would have investigated more, but Ultear told us to stop once we were discovered, for the sake of the guild and the council."

"A rain dragon slayer? You mean one like Natsu?" Mirajane asked, shocked by his reveal.

"Mmmhm, Theeth probably thronger than Nathu though." Naruto answered and Mirajane was even more surprised.

He explained to her who the Akatsuki was during his time, their goals and why they would be such a danger if they were making moves in this world. He went into detail about how they had to fight a war against a fearsome man known as Madara Uchiha and that if he hadn't worked together with Kurama and the rest of the shinobi, he wouldn't be standing here today. He calmly raised his chopsticks and said, "Thanks for the food!" as he began slurping up the second helping of his favorite food

"You and Kurama must have had to been friends for a long time to fight along side each other for such a difficult battle." Mirajane said and Naruto shook his head in denial.

"He's been with me all my life..." He started until he slurped up the last of the broth of his ramen. Releasing a satisfied sigh and burp right after causing the take-over wizard to giggle. She smiled at the beginning of his sentence, thinking the rest of it would be a charming story about their bond the childhood. He set down the bowl and continued,

"...but we only became friends, in the middle of the war. Everything before that you could say we were enemies." Naruto said and Mirajane's eyes became as wide as ever. Talk about shocking.

"Fuzzbutt over here _**'Oi!'**_ was the source of pretty much every problem I faced, even though it's not really his fault." He said as he traded his empty bowl for another bowl of his 'food from the gods'. Mirajane just sat there, an implication to continue to explain his story.

"Kurama, the nine tailed fox, Kyuubi no Yoko. The strongest of the nine tailed fox. He could level mountains, create tsunamis and destroy entire countries with the just the swipes of its tails He was a mighty beast, people compare it to destruction itself-" Naruto said until he was cut off by Mirajane.

"Stop trying to act all cool and poetic." Mirajane complained and Naruto shot her a glance that screamed "Are you serious?"

"I remember you questioning my smarts and now when I actually try to sound smart I get put down..." Naruto grumbled causing the ivory-haired wizard to giggle. Naruto cleared his throat and scoffed,

"Anyway… The nine tails was way too powerful to walk around aimlessly so it was decided that to keep people safe they would use a human sacrifice contain the beast's power. Those sacrifices are called jinchurikki. My father and mother sacrificed their lives to save me from the nine tails. My father sealed it inside of me on the day I was born." Naruto explained, he stopped only to let this information sink in.

"When I was growing up, the villagers despised me, avoided me, thinking that I was just an incarnation of the nine tailed fox. I was kicked out of stores, they treated me like a pariah and I couldn't make any friends. I hated the villagers for treating me like that for something wasn't even in my control. That's why I decided to become hokage, so people would acknowledge me like I'm somebody and treat me with respect!" Naruto echoed his words from his first meeting with team 7. It was always tough for Naruto to talk about his past, especially since for a long time he didn't have anyone to tell about it.

Mirajane listened to his story with a downcast expression. She looked at her right arm as painful memories began flooding back.

"To be hated for something that's not in your control..." Mirajane said in a low voice, whispering. Naruto heard her, but couldn't quite make out what she was saying.

"Huh? What did you say?" He asked as he slurped up his new bowl of ramen. What was it his 5th? No real point in trying to figure out how much he ate.

"I'm the same as you. When my siblings and I were younger, there was a demon inside of a church in our small village that made people afraid to go anywhere near there. I went there, hoping to defeat it. I did, but I only absorbed it's power and my arm became demonic. After that, we had to hide from villagers all the time because they would always stay outside our house with pitchforks and torches. We were forced to leave the village, and eventually ended up in Fairy Tail. Elfman and Lisanna couldn't grow up normally because of their demonic older sister." Mira said as hot tears began to roll down her face. She gripped the counter with force, causing cracks in the wooden material as she tried to contain her emotions. Having shared similar pasts, Naruto truly felt for her. She was the first person since Gaara who truly understood what it was like to be a jinchurikki. The pain of being hated for something beyond your control, is not an easy thing to bear.

Naruto wiped away her tears with his hand and smiled. "Don't cry, you look so much better when you smile." He encouraged her and although it didn't stop the tears from falling, it definitely helped her calm down a bit.

 **(End Flashback)**

Mirajane closed her eyes as her body started to emit a purple aura as she released her magic power. Then her body began to be enveloped in a flash of light and her body changed into that of her Satan Soul.

"I can do it because I have all of you who still believe in me, even after my failures. _And for him too..."_ Mirajane smiled as she turned and stepped into the portal, and it closed behind her.


	12. Chapter 12

Naruto screamed in agony as the Kurama's chakra was constantly being sucked out of him.

"This is taking too long." Momoshiki complained and Naruto smirked weakly.

"...Sorry, we shinobi... Don't like to make things easy for you." Naruto said as everyone looked up to see, Natsu, Gray, Erza, Mirajane, and Sasuke were flying down towards them.

Several lancers made of ice rained down on then and the two Otsutsuki members separated themselves from Naruto to avoid the attack. Erza requipped into her Heaven's Wheel armor, and cut the binds that held Naruto to the tree. Mirajane transformed into her Satan Soul and caught Naruto as he was falling, helping him to the ground.

"Are you okay?" Mirajane asked.

"Yeah... Thanks..." Naruto said in between breaths smiling. Naruto stood up and he stumbled a little bit. Mirajane reached out to help him but she hesitated when she saw him stand up straight.

"I'm sorry... For getting you guys involved in our problems." Naruto said and Mirajane shook her head.

"We're friends, I want to get involved. I want to help you. We all do." Mira assured him.

"You guys saved me, thanks a bunch." Naruto smiled.

"Here this is for you." Mirajane said as she handed Naruto his jacket. He smiled and accepted from her, immediately putting it on.

"Let's go." Naruto said as he leaped into action and Mirajane followed suit.

Meanwhile...

Gray and Erza were facing off against Kinshiki in an epic battle of sword play. Kinshiki was able to find an opening and he attended Erza in her abdomen.

"Erza!" Gray cried out.

"You're cornered!" Kinshiki declared as he moved to attack Gray with a battle axe that he made out of chakra. Gray smirked and asked, "Aren't you talking about yourself?"

Suddenly Kinshiki couldn't move as a pair of hands grabbed his feet from beneath the ground. He was pulled under the ground until only his head was above ground. Erza popped out the ground next to to him and winked, "Earth Style: Head Hunter Jutsu"

"Ice Make: Hammer!" Gray declared his attack as a gigantic mallet appeared and slammed onto Kinshiki's head.

"That's for Lili you bastard."

Natsu and Sasuke were chasing Momoshiki who continued to flee from his attackers. Naruto and Mirajane had managed catch up with them. Naruto was jumping from root to root and created the handsign for his most known jutsu.

"Fire Dragon's..." Natsu was inhaling and Mirajane was charging a dark attack

"Evil..."

"No! Don't use any magic or ninjutsu on him!" Sasuke warned as he finally caught up to Momoshiki and was able to stop him in his tracks. They squared off with each other, Sasuke with his sword pointed at him and asked, "You absorb Ninjutsu and magic and spew it back out right? It's not that different from the way Natsu's magic works."

"So taijutsu it is." Naruto grinned as he cracked his knuckles.

"Hand to hand combat? I can work with that." Mirajane said.

"Oh yeah I'm all fired up!"

"You should hide somewhere Happy, this is gonna get nasty." Natsu warned. Happy nodded and flew away, following his order.

Momoshiki gritted his teeth in frustration now that his weakness was exposed.

"You've certainly gotten much stronger Gray, I must commend you." Erza praised and Gray rubbed his head in embarrassment.

"But don't let your guard down. They're strong, I doubt they would be defeated so easily."

"Yeah..."

From deep beneath the rubble, Kinshiki thought to himself, "Lord Momoshiki, it's time to fulfill my duty."

The ground suddenly began to rumble underneath them as Kinshiki burst from the ground. He leaped high in the air and created a giant red scythe and landed next to Momoshiki. He swung the scythe with overwhelming force, slicing the world tree completely in half causing a lot of destruction in its path. Kinshiki was breathing heavily and breathing badly from his head and his arms.

"Lord Momoshiki... It's time... Take me, just as our previous ancestors have done. Do not hesitat-" He said and Momoshiki wasted no time in putting out his left hand turning Kinshiki into a chakra fruit.

"As if I would hesitate!" He said angrily and he began eating the fruit.

"To his own...!" Natsu growled as he was about to rush in for an attack but he was a bit too slow. The effect of eating the chakra fruit caused Momoshiki to explode with power pushing away the four who surrounded him a great distance. After absorbing Kinshiki, Momoshiki's appearance took a drastic change including; black sclerae, white irides, dark-red skin, a pointy chin, fangs, claws on his hands and feet which were exposed, white hair, ponytail enlarged and became much spikier, larger, sharpened bull horns, white markings under his eyes and a massive increase in size. His Rinnegan on his palms turned purple and he awakened a third one on his forehead.

Momoshiki salivated with power and he yelled out a might roar, containing all kinds of killing intent.

"What kind of power is this!? It's on a whole other level!" Gray thought.

"I've never experienced something like this not even from Naruto or Sasuke!" Erza panicked.

"I'm scared..." Mirajane collapsed onto her knees as shook in fear. There was silence but then the sound of footsteps were heard. Everyone looked up to see Naruto and Sasuke walking in front of them.

"Hn, it's like I'm looking at my old self." Sasuke said as he threw off his cloak.

"No kidding..." Naruto said as he activated his chakra mode.

"Let's teach him a lesson, Sasuke."

"Yeah."

Naruto, Sasuke and Momoshiki rushed each other and Momoshiki caught each of their punches with one hand. Although their punches were able to move the gigantic stump of the world tree ruining the landscape even more than it was before. They struggled against Momoshiki until Naruto ducked and Sasuke hit him with a strong reverse round house kick.

They rushed their enemy again and engaged in a taijutsu battle. Erza and the rest watched their battle take place and we're just in awe.

"They're both ridiculously strong individually, but their teamwork is flawless." Erza said.

"I feel ashamed to have to sit back and watch. I need more training." Gray scolded himself.

"I wanna fight too but... I think we'd only be in their way." Natsu said.

"Ohhhh? You've become a lot more mature since then Natsu." Erza cooed him and she squeezed his cheek like he was a child.

"Don't do that!"

Sasuke slid under Momoshiki's sword swing and kicked him in the chin sending him into air. Naruto met him in the air and punched him through a moon like object that was lingering in the air. Sasuke met Momoshiki at the other end of that moon and kicked him back towards Naruto. At this point they were playing tennis with Momoshiki's body. Naruto grabbed him by the legs and flipped several times in the air flinging him to the ground in the crevice of a mountain. Naruto and Sasuke dove towards him preparing to end it with a strike. However Momoshiki didn't plan on going quietly into the night as he created a chain and wrapped it around Sasuke, using it to throw him out of the picture. He rolled out of the way of Naruto's hit and hopped on the tree stump. Naruto's momentum carried him into the crevice and he hurt himself in the process.

Momoshiki clapped his hands together and the sides of the mountain came together entrapping Naruto. Sasuke recovered as he tried rush Momoshiki alone but had to dodge and block several projectiles on his way. At least until his feet got stuck in the root of the tree. Momoshiki rushed him with a giant mallet. Being unable to move, the most he could do was stab his sword into the ground and release lightning chakra from it in order to help block the attack. However, Momoshiki's brute strength knocked him high in the air and Sasuke recovered in the air. However the onslaught of attacks only continued when Sasuke was being bombarded by several boulders. Using his susanoo to block them, it only made matters worse because the rocks didn't fly off like they were supposed to, they instead clung to his susanoo and began to glow a red color.

"He's using me as an epicenter!" Sasuke said as he groaned in pain as the radiant heat coming from the stones burned him, so much so they actually combusted.

"Sasuke!" The left out crowd cried out. Suddenly the ground shook as Kurama in his full might leaped from the structure that Naruto was trapped in. Catching Sasuke in his chakra, Naruto noticed his burn marks and scowled. He fed Sasuke some of Kurama's chakra in order to help him recover. Suddenly several snakes made of the earth hooked themselves on Kurama's shoulders and thighs with their fangs. Kurama grabbed and ripped apart the snakes gripping his shoulders. Then a giant Phoenix like bird made entirely of flames sprang into life. Kurama grabbed hold of its wings, struggling against it.

Naruto growled as he struggled against all of the monsters he had to fight. However he felt a tug on his arm and when he turned he saw that Sasuke had completely recovered. He grinned as Kurama ripped apart the Phoenix. A monster made of magma started to come to life as soon as the Phoenix was defeated. However all of the snakes that were grappling on to the nine tails were obliterated by the building up of the Susanoo armor.

Sasuke's susanoo armor built up around Kurama, giving him the armor of a warrior. Momoshiki was controlling the Magma monster from the top of its head and used it to swing at Kurama. Although due to its size and body structure, the attack was slow, giving Sasuke enough time to materialize a sword for their combo. Kurama swiftly ducked under the punch and swung the sword like a baseball bat, slicing the monster in half and causing it to implode on itself.

The swing of the massive sword cause a huge shockwave across the land blowing Natsu and others away a bit, nearly as much as Momoshiki.

Kurama and the Susanoo both dissipated as Naruto and Sasuke landed on the ground. Natsu and the others ran up to them with smiles on their face.

"You guys did it!" Happy said ecstatically.

"Your teamwork is absolutely flawless. Good work." Erza praised but Sasuke immediately silenced all congratulation talk.

"We certainly did a lot of damage, but I highly doubt it was enough to kill him."

"If we could use our ninjutsu on him, we would have beat him already." Naruto said as they saw Momoshiki struggle to rise up out of the dirt, completely battered. He was breathing heavily and had a huge scowl on his face.

"You dare ruin my garments!? I'll kill you!" Momoshiki declared.

"Do the four of you think that you can eliminate the eye on his left hand while we accumulate power?" Sasuke asked.

"Heh, let's show off the fruits of our training!" Natsu declared.

"Hey, Kurama, can you try to absorb as much natural energy as you can?" Naruto asked.

"I'm on it."

"I've got a plan." Gray said as he huddled them together to quickly explain it.

"I see... That'll surely work." Erza said.

"Sasuke, when we give the signal, use your ninjutsu." Gray said and he nodded.

Momoshiki pulled a few round red pills and swallowed all of them, gaining back a lot of energy.

"Let's go, we won't get a second chance." Erza said as she threw down a few smoke bombs. Natsu, Gray and Mirajane jumped out of the smoke and Gray threw an ice boomerang who held out his hand to absorb it. However what he tried to absorb was a transformed Erza requipped into her lightning empress armor.

"Take this!" Erza was about to try and shock him with her lightning spear but he grabbed Erza and tossed her aside. Suddenly he was being raised up by a near mountain sized ice platform.

"Now Natsu!" Gray ordered. The center of the ice hill started to glow a red color.

"Don't you know how hard it is to melt ice without making it completely evaporate!?" Natsu complained as the ice instantly started melting into a giant pool of water. Once all the ice was melted Momoshiki stood in the water holding Natsu up by the throat.

"Your measly little attacks won't have any effect on me. You're too weak!" Momoshiki glared at Natsu who happened to smirk.

"You're up Mira." He said, barely having enough breath to do so.

"Evil Spark! The electricity of a demon can numb every cell in the body." Mira said as she electrocuted the pool of water. Momoshiki shrieked in pain and let go of Natsu unintentionally.

"And since you can't feel anything..." Gray smirked as he refroze the water, holding Momoshiki's feet in place. Ice began creeping up his body preventing even further movement.

"This ice will be child's play to absorb." Momoshiki said confidently.

"What!?" He looked down at his arm and saw that he was actually lacking one.

"Looking for this?" Natsu smirked as he tossed Momoshiki's arm up and down like a baseball in his claw like hand. They looked and saw Sasuke's perfect Susanoo charging Indra's arrow while a three headed Kurama was charging one massive rasenshuriken and one tailed beast rasenshuriken. Natsu used all his might to toss Momoshiki's severed hand away. He grabbed Gray and Erza and launched them towards Naruto while Mirajane flew there on her own.

"SIX PATHS: ALMIGHTY SCREAM!" Naruto and Sasuke declared their attack and launched it at Momoshiki who was defenseless. At the last moment Happy picked up Natsu and flew away from the explosion as fast as he could. After a few minutes the explosion finally subsided. Everything that had form was completely decimated, not even a trace of anything left.

"This place was already in bad shape when we came. Is there even a word beyond barren wasteland?" Mirajane asked as she looked on at the massive damage, her Satan Soul receding.

"Massive would be an understatement for this kind of destruction." Happy commented.

"That... Was... Awesome!" Natsu beamed.

"You gotta teach me how to do that!"

"If they taught you that you'd probably destroy all of Magnolia." Gray said.

Kurama and Sasuke's Susanoo began to disappear as they landed on the ground.

"It was necessary to defeat opponents as strong as they were." Erza said.

Naruto and Sasuke collapsed onto their behinds and let out a sigh of relief.

"Whew I'm beat." Naruto said.

"Yeah... I don't even feel like moving right now." Sasuke said.

"Those were incredibly powerful techniques, but they're pretty taxing it seems." Erza said.

"I want to know, where did you learn to use ninjutsu?" Sasuke asked.

"Fufufu. I thought you would never ask." Erza chuckled as she reached behind her back. She pulled out a cloth and raised it to her forehead. Trying it around her head, everyone with the exception of Mirajane had shocked expressions of their faces.

"I graduated from the Hidden Leaf Village's ninja academy." Erza said proudly as the headband on her head shone brightly.

"That's awesome Erza! But when did you go there? When we were there we didn't hear that you were too." Naruto asked.

"Well I didn't go there until about 6 months after you guys left. And I also wanted to make it a surprise." She answered.

"I'm impressed that you graduated in less than two years." Sasuke said.

"We'll talk more a bit later but we should go home first and check on Lili." She responded.

Everyone agreed and Sasuke stood up, followed by Naruto. The latter placed his hand on Sasuke's shoulder and supplied him with a suffice amount of chakra to get them back home. A large image of the rinnegan appeared before them before it turned into a black and purple portal.

Outside of Porlyusica's home, Lucy and Elfman were picking flowers when suddenly a portal opened up in the sky. Natsu, Gray and the others fell down in front of them. Moans and groans could be heard amongst the dog pile.

"Get off of me!" Natsu yelled from beneath the pile.

"You guys are back!" Lucy said excitedly.

"Will you stop all of the ruckus!? You're affecting the recovery of my patient!" Porlyusica scolded furiously.

"So that means Lili's okay then!?" Naruto asked, hope gleaming in his eyes.

"Yes, she is. She is conscious now and yes you may see her. But if I hear one loud noise, your out!" Porlyusica warned and they all rushed to see her.

Lili smiled when she heard Porlyusica yelling at them. She struggled to sit up but she managed.

"Don't strain yourself. You need to rest." Borelle said from her bedside. The door creaked open slowly as Natsu and the others poked their heads in. They smiled when they saw her sitting up and filed in.

"How ya feelin'?" Naruto asked. Lili turned her head to face them and saw that they were all dusty, battered, and bruised.

"I'm fine, but you guys look like you've seen better days." She responded.

"Well we did just come from battle."

Erza said.

"You guys managed to beat them!?" Borelle asked.

"Yup! But to be honest, if all of us weren't there, we probably would have lost. Those guys were on another level." Naruto answered.

"But it sure did take you guys a long time to come back." Lucy commented.

"Wait, how long were we gone for?" Gray asked.

"Three days." Lucy answered.

"What!? That fight felt like it only lasted like 10 minutes!" Natsu exclaimed. Erza immediately covered his mouth preventing him from making too much noise.

"You imbecile, did you not hear what Porlyusica said? Keep quiet!" Erza whispered.

"So time moves differently in their dimension than it does us..."

"By the way Borelle, how did you find out what happened to Lili?" Gray asked.

"We're brother and sister, I always know if something happens. Also a woman named Ultear contacted me by messenger pigeon." He answered.

"Ultear huh... I don't really trust her." Lilian said.

"I know what you mean. She has a malevolence about her." Erza added.

"I don't think she's all that bad. At least I hope so." Naruto whispered the last part to himself.

"Oh, Erza I see you're wearing your forehead protector." Lilian said.

"Yes, I'm glad that I took you up on your offer to join the academy." She responded.

"You know, Erza's name is already quite known throughout the village." Borelle said and Erza sweatdropped.

"Please don't talk about that..." Erza pleaded.

"What happened?" Naruto asked.

"Well you see, I'm sure you guys are well aquatinted with Erza's bad side." Borelle answered.

"Let's just say she's renowned as the reincarnation of the Red Hot Habanero." Lilian said and Naruto burst out laughing.

"That's so awesome! That's my mother's old nickname."

"It all started when a kid accidentally made her drop her strawberry cake and all hell broke loose." Lilian giggled.

"That sounds like Erza alright." Gray said grinning.

"Although this is true, she's also pretty adored throughout the village among the kids especially." Lilian added.

"Erza's the same no matter where she goes." Natsu chuckled.

"Aye, that's Erza for you!"

"Incidentally, what rank were you in the academy?" Sasuke asked.

"Same as you, she was the #1 rookie." Lilian answered.

"Well to be fair she was already trained in combat and was far older than the rest of the students. So it was only natural that she'd be number one." Borelle added.

"Wait, if Sasuke and Erza were both #1, then what were you?" Lucy asked Naruto who grinned.

"I was dead last." He answered and Elfman and Lucy keeled over at his answer.

"How could you be so strong and yet you were dead last!? Does that mean that Sasuke's like a God then?" Lucy asked.

"It's because he's a man!"

"If you work hard and train every single day, dead last really doesn't mean anything in the end." Naruto answered.

"Yes, and I took it upon myself to help all the kids improve as much as I could." Lilian said.

"That must've been some rigorous training, her taijutsu is pretty good for someone with only about a year and a half under her belt." Naruto said.

"Please don't praise me so much. I still have a long way to go." Erza said a little sheepishly and everyone laughed.

"Still, when you fought Natsu, you used his own hands against him to create handsigns, that was really impressive." Naruto praised.

"She did that? But we never taught her that she could do that." Lilian said.

"So where'd learn that?" Sasuke asked.

"I learned it from you." She responded and everyone was shocked.

"How did you learn that from me?"

"Near the end of the year in the academy, Lilian showed us a movie that was created that simulated your final battle with Naruto. Then I saw you use Naruto's hand to weave signs for a fireball and I decided to try it if I ever got the chance." She answered.

"I always thought that ninja were nothing but legends, but here they are, standing right in front of me." Lucy said.

"Well the way this world is right now, we are nothing but legends." Sasuke said.

"Speaking of which, have you two checked that book recently?" Erza asked.

"Well let's see right now." Naruto said as he pulled the book out seemingly from nowhere.

"Oh wow that's pretty useful, how'd you do that?" Mirajane asked.

"Flying raijin." Naruto answered. He opened the book to the first page and it read, 'One night, the moon turned red as if it was stained with blood.'

"Okay, here goes." Naruto said as he slowly began turning the page. Everyone's eyes widened when they saw that the page was no longer blank. There was a silhouette of the ten tailed beast with all of its tails swinging with just the rinnegan in its head being the only visible feature. An army of shinobi stood before it and the caption read, 'On that day, stood the mightiest creature of all, the Ten Tails. The shinobi of all the great nations banded together to fight this mighty beast'.

Naruto turned to the next page and it was blank like before.

"So this book takes place during our time." Naruto said.

"The ten tails? What's that?" Lucy asked.

"It's a mythical creature, now all of you get out. You've been crowding my patient for too long." Porlyusica said.

"Awww but we just got here!" Natsu complained.

"I said get OUT!" She yelled as she started swinging at them with her Broom forcing them out.

"Jeez what is it with that old hag? Is she always like that?" Naruto asked.

"More than you know..." Erza answered.

"What could have possibly caused that page of the book to be revealed?" Gray asked.

"I can only think of two possibilities. It was either the defeat of Momoshiki and Kinshiki or it was the destruction of Lullaby." Sasuke suggested.

"Well, the only way to confirm that is to slay another demon from the book of Zeref." Mirajane said.

"Well I'd love to find out the secret behind it but for now... I think I'm just gonna take a nap." Naruto said as he collapsed onto the floor and began to snore loudly.

"I guess he lost more chakra than we thought. He's exhausted." Happy said.

"I'll take him, I could use the rest myself while I'm at it." Sasuke said as he slung Naruto's arm over his shoulder and carried hm towards the bulding where both of their apartments stay.

"Honestly, I'm just glad that everyone's okay." Mirajane said.

"How about it? Do you guys want to exchange stories back at the guild?" Erza asked.

"Yeah! And I'm gonna eat until I drop!" Natsu declared

"Aye sir!"

 **Next Chapter: Erza's School Days/Training Day**


	13. Erza's School DaysTraining Day

**Chapter 13: Erza's School Days/Training Day** **Erza's School Days.**

 **2 weeks after Natsu and Gray's departure.**

"Enroll in the ninja academy? What for?" Erza asked

"Well, I figured since you have an enormous amount chakra especially since you're not even a trained shinobi, you should become a shinobi too. It would be a waste to have a rare case like yours go to waste." Lili answered.

"I think you should, Erza." Makarov said.

"It will be good for you to expand your horizons. In fact I'm ordering you to go to the academy."

"Well if the Master says I have to then I guess I have no choice. Are we leaving now?" Erza asked and Lilian nodded.

"The new year is about to begin but we have to get you registered and take care of all the paperwork first."

Lilian answered.

 **(2 weeks later)**

Lilian was standing in front of a bunch of children, wearing standard jonin attire for the Hidden Leaf. Her hair was tied in a high pony tail, with her forehead protector tied where the name suggests.

"Good morning class, I'd like for you to meet your new classmate, Erza Scarlet." Lilian introduced.

"Sensei, why does she look as old as you?"

"What's up with her red hair? It looks like a tomato." Kids called out and the entire class began making fun of Erza well except for one kid. There was a boy with spiky blue hair who seemed to be one of the more reserved kids in the class.

"If I hear another person belittling Erza, the whole class is taking a pop quiz do you understand me?" Lilian threatened and the whole class became quiet.

"Well they are just kids so I guess this was to be expected..." Erza whispered.

"I'm glad you understand, so please take a seat anywhere you like." Lilian said. Erza sat next to the boy with the blue hair who was seated in the back of the class.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" Erza asked and the boy shook his head. Lilian started to lecture the class about the history of the Hidden Leaf Village and it's founders.

 **(A few hours later...)**

It was lunch time and all the life including Erza grabbed their lunch and went outside.

"I learned so many things today, this is gonna be a great experience." Erza thought to herself out loud. She looked at a lone swing underneath a tree and decided to eat her lunch there.

"This reminds me of when I first joined the guild. I was always distanced myself from everyone and watched from afar. It seems that part of me hasn't changed." Erza thought as she watched all the kids eating and laughing together.

She looked down at her food which was nothing special. Just a sandwich, a bottle of water and a banana. Lilian had offered to give her anything she wanted for lunch but she ultimately declined, saying that she didn't want to be treated better than the other children.

"Perhaps I should've taken Lili up on that offer. Some strawberry cheesecake would be lovely right now." Erza thought aloud.

"Umm..."

Erza heard the voice and looked up from her tray to see the boy she sat next to in class.

"Oh, hello there." She greeted.

"How come you're sitting here all by yourself?" He asked. Erza was surprised by his question but she smiled.

"I don't really mind being by myself is all. What about you? I figured you would be with all the other kids as well." Erza answered.

"I always come here during lunch. To be honest you're kind of sitting in my spot." He smiled.

"Oh I'm sorry" Erza was about to get up but he stopped her.

"It's okay, you can sit there." He said.

"By the way, my name is Naegi. It's nice to meet you, Erza." He smiled as he sat on the large root that stuck out from the tree next to Erza.

"Well it's my pleasure Naegi." Erza smiled right back.

"Did you know that the spot you're sitting in is a really important spot?"

"Oh is that right?"

"Yeah! My parents told me that the Savior of the world used to sit there when he was in the academy!"

"Savior of the world? And who might this Savior be?"

"Have you been living under a rock or something? He's a super awesome shinobi who saved the whole world centuries ago! His name is Naruto Uzumaki! And I heard that he returned recently I want to meet him sooo bad." He said excitedly.

"Naruto Uzumaki? I actually know him. Him and I are actually good friends if I can say so myself." Erza said and Naegi's eyes beamed.

"No way! Not only did you meet him but you're actually friends with him? It sounds too good to be true." Naegi pouted like a child. Erza chuckled and patted his head.

"Maybe if you're on your best behavior I'll ask him to come to the class."

"Really!?"

"You have my word."

"I think I'm starting to like you already." Naegi smirked

After lunch, the class stayed outside but was held on the other side of the building.

"Alright class, we're going work on throwing kunai." Lili announced as she pulled out a few kunai seemingly from out of nowhere and tossed them at the wooden targets. All three landing in the dead center. Bullseye.

"Now, let's see... Erza, tell me three things that every ninja has to take into account when throwing a kunai." Lili said, putting Erza on the spot.

"Wind direction and speed, moving targets, and distance." Erza answered.

"Very good. Now we're going to do a little test. Don't worry you won't be graded or anything, I just want to see where the each of you stand. Naegi you're up first." Lili said as she used her ocular prowess the kunai out of the targets and handed them to Naegi.

Naegi took the kunai, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened his eyes he swiftly threw the knives and they all landed in the dead center, the same way Lili threw them.

"Perfect Naegi, you're up next Erza." Lilian praised as she used her powers to hand the kunai to Erza. As soon as she took them she launched them at the targets, nailing each of them in the dead center.

"You don't have the luxury to take a breather and relax in battle to strike your target." Erza said.

"You're absolutely right Erza. Good work."

The other kids in the class were impressed with how good Erza was at throwing kunai. One by one the kids went through the kunai exercise until it was the final girl's turn. This girl had long silver hair braided into a fish tail that hangs over her shoulder. She had dark purple eyes and fair skin.

"Do your best Kirigiri!" Naegi cheered.

"Sure..." She responded coldly.

She took the knives and took a deep breath. She threw them at the targets and well... She barely hit the edge of the first one, the second one was a bit closer to the middle and the third one... Lilian had caught it with her fingers right between her eyes.

"She's... Really bad at that." Erza whispered to Naegi in concern.

"This always happens. Her kunai skills haven't gotten any better since we started the academy." Naegi whispered back.

"She's always sleeping in class, she's super lazy, and she doesn't even show any kind of effort in taijutsu! Out of everyone she's dead last. The only good thing she does is get perfect scores on tests." Naegi whispered loudly

"So we've got a lazy genius on our hands huh? Is there anything else about her that's interesting?" Erza asked.

"Hmm if I really think about it, I don't think I've ever seen her smile. Not even once."

"Kirigiri... This is supposed to be your graduation year, if you don't start improving you won't become a full fledged ninja." Lilian said in 'teacher mode'.

"Sure, Sensei." She responded as she went back in line. Lilian sighed and proceeded with the lesson.

Erza spent the rest of the day watching Kirigiri. Just as Naegi said, she with most of her time in the back of the class snoozing away. But her genius assumption was correct when Lili threw chalk at her while she was sleeping and forced her to answer a pretty complicated math problem. Kirigiri looked up at the problem and solved it instantly. Math certainly wasn't Erza's strongest subject but she would manage. The day ended and everyone filed out of the class one by one, chattering about what they were going to do for the rest of the day. Kirigiri was walking by herself just like Erza expected. However Naegi jogged up to her and asked, "Hey Kirigiri, do you wanna go to the dango shop and play some Shogi? I'll even bring Erza-san with me."

"Sure..." She answered.

"Erza-san!" Naegi called out, getting Erza's attention. Naegi ran up to her and asked, "Do you wanna play some Shogi with me and Kirigiri"

"Umm what's Shogi?"

"Eh don't worry about it I'll show you!" He said as he grabbed her hand and began to drag her along with him.

"Okay I think I've gotten the rules down now." Erza said as she put down the rule book. Naegi had gotten beaten by Kirigiri several times in the time.

"How many times is that?" Erza asked.

"29..." Naegi said, paled, with an exhausted and defeated expression.

"If you work hard you might be able to win one day."

"Okay, I'm ready to begin." Erza said as she moved Naegi out of the way and in front of the board.

 **15 moves later...**

"Checkmate." Kirigiri said and Erza paled.

"I knew it was going to be over quick but I never expected this." Erza said baffled.

"You're better than Naegi I suppose." Kirigiri said with her usual stone cold face.

"Just adding insult to injury aren't you..." Naegi whimpered in defeat.

"Let's play again! I'm all fired up now!" Erza declared.

"Checkmate."

"Checkmate."

"Checkmate."

"Checkmate."

"Checkmate."

"Checkmate."

"Checkmate."

"Just forget it Erza it's hopeless." Naegi advised who had lost for the umpteenth time in a row. Shellshocked with the amount of losses she accumulated in such a short amount of time.

"It's getting late I really must get home." Kirigiri said as she got up from her seat and went to walk out of the shop.

"Did you have fun?" Erza asked with a smile stopping Kirigiri in her tracks.

"Yeah..." She answered as she proceeded on her way home. Erza smiled warmly until she heard yawning beside her.

"I think I'm gonna go home too. I'll see you tomorrow." Naegi yawned as he too went his separate way. Erza made her way to the Hokage tower where she would stay until Lilian could find her a suitable place to live. The Hokage tower was different now ever since Naruto's time. The red cylindrical tower was replaced with a building that was just as real but Pentagon shaped with a flag for the Hidden Leaf draped over it. Erza walked, getting many stares from people as she walked. Some perverted men who focused on her beauty, some women who were jealous of her looks, and some children who were incredibly intrigued by her Scarlet hair.

She walked through the front door of the tower and saw Lilian waiting for her.

"You were out for quite a while what were you doing this whole time?" Lili asked.

"I was hanging out with Naegi and Kirigiri." Erza answered.

"Kirigiri? I'm surprised she actually hung out with you guys." Lilian said as they began to progress through the building. They waited for the elevator to come and continued chatting.

"Well, it was Naegi who asked her, I kind of just got dragged along." She responded.

"She's not a very open girl as you could see for yourself. She's incredibly intelligent, her IQ is off the charts." Lilian said.

"No kidding, she beat me and Naegi in Shogi over 40 times collectively in a row."

"40 huh? She just doesn't show any effort in anything other than thinking problems or strategy games. She's so shy people tend to stay away from her." Lilian said.

"So she doesn't have any friends?" Erza asked.

"Other than Naegi, no. But you can tell, she really values having Naegi around. When they play Shogi together you can tell she's having a blast even though she wins all the time." Lilian giggled.

"And what about Naegi? He seems to admire Naruto a lot." Erza asked.

"Naegi, if I'd say there was anyone who was a mixture between Naruto and Sasuke it would be him. He's a dunce and impatient when it comes to studying. But he excels in everything else. Honestly he's probably the top ranked student in the academy right now." She answered. The elevator stopped on the living quarters for the Hokage tower where only the Hokage and his family could live if they choose.

"So how was your first day?" Lili asked.

"If I can finish it off with a bath and strawberry cake, it'll have been perfect."

 **Training Day.**

Sasuke had Gray with him by himself ready to teach him.

"Now I that you use ice magic, do you know what makes ice molding magic so dangerous?" Sasuke asked.

"My master Ur, taught me that molding magic is the magic of freedom. The more free I am, the stronger my magic is." Gray answered.

"That's true, but not what I meant." Sasuke said.

"What are the changeable qualities of ice?"

"Quantity, and form if I had to guess."

"You're half right. It's temperature or Frost rate, Quantity, Form, and density."

"I understand the first three but why density?"

"I'll show you exactly what it means." Sasuke said as he activated his rinnegan. He brought the rib cage of his Susanoo to life and said, "Go on, hit me with your most powerful attack."

"Okay." Gray responded as he placed his fist in his open palm and tried a lot of magic power.

"Ice Make: Impact!" He declared his attack and a giant hammer like drill smashed down on Sasuke. The impact kicked up a lot of snow and when it settled Gray was shocked. Sasuke hadn't even budged an inch, and his Susanoo didn't have a single scratch on it.

"I see now. The bones of your exoskeleton is so dense that they're almost impossible to break."

"You're a lot smarter than Naruto." Sasuke said as he deactivated his Sharingan letting his Susanoo disappear.

"It's called a Susanoo by the way." Sasuke said. He pulled out a scroll and a dry erase white board poofed into existence.

"Truthfully, increasing the density of your ice can be both the most difficult and simplest part of training." Sasuke said. He went on to explain how the molecules of water and ice worked.

"And when you make ice the molecules become more compact and close together to crystallize. Understand?" Sasuke asked and Gray nodded.

"Now why is this important? Think of diamonds. The reason they are so hard to break is not just because the molecules are tightly compacted, but it's the way they are compacted. It's not enough to have the molecules compacted, but the shape is the most important." Sasuke explained.

"Basically I have to change the properties of my ice on a molecular level. Right?" Gray asked and Sasuke nodded.

"So how do I do it?" Gray asked.

"You have to become one with ice. That's why I brought you up to these mountains. Feel the ice with every fiber of your being. And once you can you'll be able to use ice even tougher than my Susanoo. Now close your eyes, visualise the molecules and weave them together." Sasuke said as Gray got into his magic pose. He did as Sasuke told him and visualised it.

"I can feel it... I can see it..." He thought.

"There! Ice Make: Shield!" He declared as he slammed his hands on the ground and a wall that resembles half of a snow flake.

"Let's see if you were able to do it." Sasuke said as he raised his left hand and electricity started emit from it. Gray stepped away from the shield and Sasuke shot a beam of lightning towards the shield. It impacted the shield but alas it didn't go through.

"Hn, and on the first try too." Sasuke said, quite impressed with Gray. The latter looked at the shield and saw that it had a few cracks at the point of impact and frowned.

"It's not enough." Gray said.

"Let's go again."

 **...**

"Alright I'm ready to start trainin'!" Natsu declared.

"Aye Sir!"

"So what are you gonna teach me first?" Natsu asked with stars in his eyes.

"There's three things that I want to teach you over this two year span. One is to teach you to use your flames for other than burning things. Second, I'm gonna help you improve your hand to hand combat. Third, how to become a dragon." Naruto answered.

"How to become a dragon? How on earth can you teach me how to do that?" Natsu asked.

"Well I guess I'll start with that..."

"To keep it simple, I'm gonna help you turn into a miniature Igneel. I call it, the Soul of the Fire Dragon!" Naruto said, fairly proud of the name of this technique he came up with. Natsu tilted his head in confusion still and asked, "The miniature Igneel part I get, but what exactly is going to happen?"

"Hold on." Naruto said, pushing his hand out to match his gesture with his words.

"Hey, Kurama, is it even still possible for me to go into four tails mode and what not?" He asked his tailed beast partner.

"Of course it is, chakra mode is only you using your body as a vessel for my chakra. The four tails transformation is like our linked transformation with the exception that our bodies are linked instead of me just feeding you chakra." Kurama answered.

"Okay good, because it was going to be really awkward if I couldn't show him what I meant." Naruto laughed and Kurama sighed at his behavior.

"Here I'll show you." He said to Natsu, returning his mind back to the real world. Naruto's body began to be covered in a black and crimson colored chakra. He crouched over onto all fours like an actual beast and his tails swung freely.

"THAT'S SO AWESOME!" Natsu shouted excitedly.

"If my plan goes how I hope you'll be able to do something similar to this." Naruto said, his voice deeper and more rough then usual.

"Great so how do I do it?" Natsu asked eagerly.

"It's simple. You have to embody the fire on your spirit. Let your own body turn into flames." Naruto explained as he sat down the ground in the same meditative pose he would use to gather natural energy. He patted the ground next to him, a sign for Natsu to copy his pose. Natsu did so and looked at how Naruto was perfectly still, even his breathing looked like it had ceased if you didn't look close enough.

"Look for the inner flame inside you, and let it grow until it reaches its peak. And let it explode." Naruto said calmly. Natsu however struggled to remain still and focus. He sat there for what it felt like hours until he got frustrated and gave up.

"Aaaggghhh this is too hard!" Natsu fell back on to the grass and stretched his body out.

"Are you giving up already? Gray will be leagues stronger than you of you quit now." Naruto said and Natsu sat back up and sat still in a flash.

"Can't let that ice pervert beat me." Natsu muttered to himself and Naruto grinned. "Hook line and sinker" he thought.

 **(Several days later.)**

"UUUUGGGGHHHHH It seems like no matter how long I sit there I'm not making any progress!" Natsu shouted in frustration.

"Patience isn't exactly in Natsu's vocabulary, Naruto." Happy said.

 _"Hmm, this really isn't working."_ Naruto thought until an idea popped into his head.

 _"It's risky but I've gotta try it."_

"Natsu follow me." Naruto said as they began to trek up towards the mountains. As they journeyed up the mountain the air became thinner and the heat started to increase a bit. They got to the top of the mountain eventually and they looked down to see that they were standing on the rim of a volcano.

"What did we come here for?" Natsu asked and Naruto didn't respond. Instead he grabbed Happy by his tail and kicked Natsu into the Volcano.

"What are you doing!?" Happy asked as Natsu screamed, falling in to the volcano.

"You baaaasssttttaaaarrrdddd"

 _Sploosh..._

Happy wailed as he tried to break free from Naruto's grasp.

"Let me go! I have to save him!" Happy cried.

"He's the fire dragon slayer. If this kills him he was never meant to see Igneel again in the first place." Naruto said.

A few moments passed and Naruto was starting to wonder if Natsu had actually died in the volcano. However those worries were soon gone away when the volcano erupted with fire.

"He did it!" Naruto said as he covered his face to prevent any smoke or noxious gases from entering his body. When the eruption died down, a flash of red, orange, as yellow flew up into the air. It came back down and Naruto's eyes widened in shock but he smiled. Natsu had turned into an actual fire dragon, complete with wings and tail, all made of fire. **(A/N: He's like a miniature Atlas Flame.)**

"You really were able to do it. Now-" Naruto didn't even get to finish his sentence as he has to dodge an incredibly fast slash from Natsu. Natsu turned around and glared at Happy like he was a piece of steak.

"Natsu... Snap out of it Natsu..." Happy pleaded but his pleads fell on deaf ears. Natsu attacked Happy like a wild animal and...

 _Splatter!..._

Happy had his eyes closed in fear but When he opened them he saw Naruto standing in his way. Naruto, in his chakra mode had taken some of the strike on his right shoulder on a diagonal path to his right pectoral. Naruto grimaced in pain but he held Natsu in place with his chakra arms.

"I've... Got you now..." Naruto said in between breaths as he held Natsu as hard as he could without hurting him. However Natsu turned into a flickering flame and slid under Naruto's chakra arms. Then he rematerialized to his side crouching down. Natsu inhaled deeply and let out a might rust that engulfed nearly the entire mountain. Naruto has grabbed Happy and fled far away as he could in that short time.

 **"Naruto..."**

Naruto heard that voice but couldn't recognize who it was.

"Who's there!? And how do you know my name!?" Naruto questioned.

 **"I can absorb these flames. Just this once. Do not allow Natsu to use this technique again. And don't say a word about this."** The voice warned Naruto as he watched the flames reduce and Natsu's skin could be shown. He returned to normal and fell on the ground, unmoving and unresponsive. Naruto walked up to Natsu and felt his pulse. Natsu was alive, and his breathing was normal, he was simply unconscious.

"His magic power is extremely low though..." Naruto said to himself.

"Naruto... I don't want to see Natsu like that anymore." Happy whimpered.

"Don't worry Happy, I'll make sure he won't."

"I really need to learn some sealing arts for a situation like this." He thought as he saw Sasuke and Gray running up to them.

"What the hell happened? Are you guys alright?" Gray asked when he saw Naruto's wound. Naruto smiled weakly and said,

"Don't worry about me, ol' fuzzbutt will take care of this for me. But it is going to leave a mark."

"What about Natsu?" Sasuke asked.

"He's fine, he just needs rest."

 _"Who was that voice though..."_ **Thanks guys for reading. Please follow, review, and favorite, I'm so close to 500 followers I can smell it. And it's that smelly smell. That smelly smell that smells... smelly... Lol love you guys.**


	14. The Cursed Island of Galuna

**Chapter 14: The Cursed Island of Galuna**

Naruto woke up the with a peculiar smell intruding his nose.

"Where am I?" He thought as he sat up on the bed he was laying on. He rubbed his eyes to rid himself of the blurry vision and noticed that he was in his apartment. He didn't have on a shirt, he was only covered in a bunch of bandages from his midsection to his left shoulder. Once he came to, he immediately recognized that the smell was coming from the kitchen. He took a deep whiff and immediately recognized it as his favorite food. He got up, hoping to consume his favorite delicacy but instantly winced in pain and stumbled a bit.

"So I still haven't fully recovered huh?" He mumbled to himself. He entered his mindscape to meet an eerie nine tailed fox.

"Hey Kurama, you doing alright?" Naruto asked and the former let out a yawn.

"What do you want kit?" He responded.

"Thanks for helping me out. Without you I'd be dead." Naruto said as he stuck his fist out.

"Hmmm? What's this all about?" Kurama asked.

"What? I can't thank a friend who helps me?" Naruto asked with a playful attitude.

"Whatever..." Kurama answered as he bumped fists with his jinchurikki and partner. They stood there for a good moment and smiled.

Although, Naruto was taken out of his mindscape when he heard someone calling his name.

"Naruto..."

It was Mirajane calling to him. She was holding a tray with a steaming hot bowl of ramen.

"Are you okay? How do you feel?" Mirajane asked as she placed the bowl on the table that he had near his bed.

"I'm okay, I've certainly had better days though." He answered.

"I know I'm not 100% and all but I can still do things for myself ya know." He added.

"I know, I just wanted to do something nice, you did save our lives." Mirajane said.

"Nah, you guys saved my life. I only helped finish the rest."

"By the way where is everyone right now?" He asked.

"Well... Natsu, Happy and Lucy took an S class quest without permission. Master sent Gray after them but they haven't come back yet." Mirajane answered with a bit worry in her tone. Naruto chuckled and said,

"I think I know what's going on."

Natsu had taken an S-Class quest that Happy had stolen off of the second floor request board. The two of them and Lucy were at Hargeon, looking to get a boat to travel to Galuna island in. Their job request to help relieve the villagers of a curse that was placed on the island. The reward was for 7,000,000 Jewell and a Zodiac Key.

"Galuna Island, I'm not going there, they say the island's cursed. I hear anyone who goes there never come back." A fisherman said.

"Darn, another strike out..." Lucy sighed.

"Well the option of swimming is still available." Natsu said.

"NOT HAPPENING!"

"Found you." Gray said in between Natsu and Lucy, his arms wrapping around their shoulders.

"Crap, I didn't think they'd be on to us already!" Natsu cursed.

"We are so dead." Lucy cried.

"Look if you come back to the guild quietly Gramps won't expel you." Gray remarked and Natsu responded with 'tch'

"No way man! If I complete the S-Class quest, Gramps will have nothing to complain about." Natsu argued and the two started to butt heads.

"Listen here flame brain, I'll take you back by force if I have to." Gray threatened as he clenched his fist and a magic circle appeared.

"Oh yeah? I'd like to see you try!" Natsu said, not intimated in the slightest by Gray's threats.

"Wait you guys are wizards aren't you?" One of the sailors asked. He had on a beige cloak with a black bandana.

"Yeah, who're you?" Natsu asked.

"Hop in, I'll take you Galuna island." Bobo said.

"No way, these three aren't going anywh-" Gray said until he got knocked out from behind by Natsu. Lucy and Happy were shocked by Natsu's actions as he took Gray's body and hopped into the boat.

"Lucy, Happy quick get in!" Natsu barked and they both complied.

"Wait why are you bringing Gray with us?" Lucy asked.

"Because if I let him go back to the guild... Erza's coming next!" Natsu revealed. Lucy and Happy's whole bodies shook from head to toe, mumbling about not wanting to be punished by Erza.

"So, can you tell us more about Galuna Island?" Lucy asked. Bobo nodded and said,

"It was so strange, one night all of the villagers started turning into demons for some reason." Bobo said as he revealed his left arm from under his cloak. It was an arm of that a monster or demon if you will. Lucy and Happy were both disgusted and shocked to see his arm. Natsu was still dealing with his motion sickness as usual, complaining about wanting to swim instead.

"I know this because I was a resident of that island. So it would really be a great help if you can free the island of that curse." Bobo said.

"We'll do our best!" Lucy exclaimed, giving him a thumbs up for assurance.

"Ugh what the heck happened to me?" Gray grumbled as he regained consciousness. When he finally came to, he noticed that he was in the middle of the ocean with Natsu and the others.

"What the heck did you do to me!? And why an I tied up!?" Gray yelled scaring Lucy and Happy.

"Hey where did that guy go?" Lucy asked. In the process of looking around she noticed a huge tidal wave headed their way. Gray, Lucy and Happy all shrieked at the top of their lungs upon seeing the wave.

"Quick untie me I'll freeze it!" Gray demanded and Lucy tried her best to untie him but unfortunately it was too late.

A few moments later, the three wizards and cat were washed up on to the shore of an island. Everyone was groaning in pain with their face in the sand.

Lucy lifted her head out of the sand and groaned, "We haven't even started the job yet and we almost died..."

Natsu jumped and cackled like a maniac.

"I knew we would make it here!" Natsu exclaimed. Gray immediately got up and grabbed the former by his collar, hoisting him up slightly.

"Because of you and your selfish actions we almost got killed!" Gray said angrily.

"But we didn't get killed so all's well that ends well. Now let's get this job done." Natsu said as Gray grit his teeth and put him down. He started walking towards the inner parts of the island with Lucy and Happy.

"Wait." Gray called out and they turned to acknowledge him.

"I'll come with you guys. I can't have you guys complete an S-Class before I do." He said as he continued along with them. They walked until they came up to a giant wooden gate with guard posts at the top.

"Who goes there!?" One guard called out from atop the wall.

"We're wizards from Fairy Tail! We're here to help free the curse of Galuna!" Lucy answered back.

"We didn't he any word that someone accepted the job!" Another guard called out.

"Something must have happened to the paperwork!" Gray answered. The two guards conversed with each other with each other for a moment before asking,

"Okay, show us your guild emblems!" Guard one demanded.

Gray lifted up the dark blue shirt he was wearing and showed his dark blue Fairy Tail emblem on his right pectoral. Lucy showed them the pink stamp on the back of her hand. Natsu showed them the red stamp on his right shoulder and Happy, the green stamp on his back.

"Okay, open the gates!" The guards ordered and immediately the gigantic gate began to open up. It led to a decently sized village with tribal looking teepees, tents, and huts.

"This village is awesome!" Natsu said in amazement.

"Really? Seems like a normal village to me." Gray commented. The villagers gathered around to meet the wizards who would be helping them. However all of the villagers had been dressed in an abnormal amount of clothing, covering their bodies from head to toe.

"Are you really Fairy Tail wizards?" Asked the elderly man who was in the front of the pack. They immediately deduced that he was most likely the village's chief. Natsu confirmed that they were Fairy Tail wizards as he showed off his emblem again.

"Okay, brace yourselves. Citizens, remove your clothes!" The chief ordered. Once they did so, the Fairy Tail group was shocked.

 _"They're all like that guy that was on the boat with us!"_ Lucy thought. Everyone in the village was human but had a random body part that was transformed into that of a demon.

"As you can see, our bodies have turned into these abominations. However at night, when the moon comes up like it is now we- Aaaggghhh" The chief screamed in pain as his body began to become fully demonized along with the rest of the village. They agonized until their full transformation was complete whole Natsu and the others could do nothing but sit back and watch in horror. The chief explains that the curse began since the moon turned purple a few years ago, its Magic Power turning them into Demons.

"We normally revert to our human forms in the morning, but an unfortunate few stay as Demons. And those who do, we kill them for the sake of safety of the rest of the village. Even my own son... Was one of those victims..." The chief added sadly.

"So we beg you... Please save us from this curse!" The Chief pleaded along with the rest of the villagers.

"So do you have any idea how to dispel the curse?" Gray asked.

"The only way is to destroy the moon!" Moka, the village chief declared shocking the wizards.

"Destroy the moon? How the heck do you expect us to do that?" Natsu asked.

"There's not a wizard alive strong enough to do that!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Actually, if Naruto and Sasuke put all their effort into it they probably could." Gray pointed out and Lucy's eyes became as wide as dinner plates.

"Are you kidding me? There's no way that they're that strong!" Lucy exclaimed denying the claim that two people could destroy a celestial body as large as the moon by themselves.

"I did say probably didn't I? So you don't have to get so worked up about it." Gray responded.

"But still there has to be some other reason why this is happening to this island." He continued.

"Well if we try to destroy it we might find out." Natsu suggested.

"Oh yeah and how do you plan to even get to the moon, even if you could destroy it? Lucy asked and he held up Happy to her who seemed to look exhausted from the joke.

"Yeah I doubt that's gonna work." She said. The villagers had given them a hut to stay in for the night and warned them not to be exposed to too much moonlight or else they would become monsters like them.

"You know even though this is happening the moon looks kind of pretty." Happy said, starting up at the moon through the open window.

"Hey close that window! Didn't you hear what he said? Don't expose yourself to too much moonlight!" Lucy warned.

"We'll begin our investigation tomorrow. Right now I'm... Tired." Gray yawned as he began stripping off his clothes down to his boxers.

"Please. Just please don't take off anymore than that." Lucy asked. Natsu yawned as be plopped down on to the spot on the floor he would sleep on. Gray collapsed beside him leaving just enough room for a celestial spirit wizard to take. Happy decided to sleep slightly about Natsu's head. Lucy rubbed her sleepy eyes as she laid down on between Natsu and Gray. She proceeded to shut her eyes and right before she went into dream land she instantly was wide awake again. Natsu and Gray were snoring at inhumane volumes causing to bond to lie there in frustration.

"How? How the heck am I supposed to sleep peacefully between a beast and an exhibitionist?!" Lucy thought.

The next morning everyone woke up and decided to explore the island together to try and gather more clues about the curse.

"I'm so tired..." Gray yawned as he dragged his heels along the path.

"You're tired!? I barely got any sleep between you and Natsu's incredibly loud snoring and Happy's tail constantly landing on my face!" Lucy complained.

"Sorry, Lucy..." They both apologized.

"Open, Gate of the Clock Constellation! Horologium" Lucy said as she summoned a large grandfather clock with arms and legs. Lucy hopped into the tight space and closed the glass door.

"What are you doing in there?" Natsu asked.

"I'm not taking any chances, she says frightened." Horologium reiterated for her.

"Hey what's that up there?" Natsu asked as he pointed to a building like structure that was atop the hill.

"They look like ruins, we should check them out." Happy suggested. Suddenly a giant rodent appeared before them, shocking everyone.

"What is that thing!? A giant rat!?" Natsu questioned. Even horologium disappeared in shock and fear leaving Lucy unprotected.

"Hey don't just leave me!"

"I'll take care of it! Ice Make: Floor!" Gray declared as he froze the ground underneath the rodent causing it to slip and fall.

"Whew, let's make it to the ruins while we can." Lucy said. She turned around to face them but she saw them beating up on the already downed rodent.

"Let's beat it up while we can!" Natsu and Gray both declared simultaneously.

"Seriously?..."

Soon after, they came upon the ruins and deduced that it was some kind of temple or shrine of sorts.

"There's images of the moon everywhere in here." Lucy observed.

"Maybe something in this place is causing the villagers to be cursed." Gray mused.

"Then we should bust this place up and find out." Natsu said as he stomped his foot onto a loose part of the temple's ground and actually disassembled the entire ground causing them to fall way down.

They fell down to a dark cave and groaned in pain. Once they recovered they walked through the dark, damp cave towards a dim blue light.

Once they reached the blue light, it looked to a much larger outting in the cave. They looked and saw a gigantic encasement of ice. It was hard to make out but they could see that there was some giant monster encased in the ice.

"It's huge!" Natsu and Happy exclaimed.

"What is that?" Lucy asked as she looked up at the giant encased in ice. She looked over to Gray who was frozen just like the ice in front of them. He shivered in fear as he stared at the giant in ice.

"D-Deliora...!" Gray uttered in fear.

"The only way to find out what it is, is to melt it right?" Natsu asked as he covered his hands in flame in preparation to melt the ice. Gray's expression changed to that of anger as he punched Natsu in the face.

"Ow, what the heck was that for?" Natsu asked as he rubbed his cheek.

"You idiot! I don't want you or your flames anywhere near that ice!" Gray yelled.

"Do you seriously think that big chunk of ice could be melted that easily?" Natsu questioned.

"No..." Gray said sadly.

"So that punch was just a cheap shot?" Natsu questioned.

"Everybody hide, someone's coming!" Gray warned.

"Some nasty people beat up Angelica." A feminine voice that came from down the corridor said.

"That stupid rat?!" Another voice yelled.

"There's no need to get mad, It's annoying." A third voice said.

All of the wizards hid, waiting for those owners of the voices to show themselves. It was three people, one girl and two young men. The girl had pink hair with her hair tied in pigtails, her choker tied into a ribbon, a purple and pink short spaghetti dress with light pink trimmings, black leggings, and high-heeled sandals. Her dress appears to have two long and thin wings at the back. Her name was Sherry.

One of them, Toby, was a

lean-built, mildly muscular young man of average height with distinctive animal features: he has a pair of canine ears sitting on his head, a small dark nose and a lower face which is colored differently from the rest of his body, bearing resemblance to a canine muzzle. He has shoulder-length, straight brown hair, large round eyes with black pupils and dark eyebrows. Both of his biceps are adorned by tattoos. He wore no shirt, just a pair of light blue jeans with a dark shield logo on the right leg with skull and crossbones and brown leather shoes. He also had a collar around his neck with hollow studs on them.

The last one, Yuka is a short, slim young man distinguished by his extremely brushy, squared black eyebrows. His eyes, too, are black, while his hair, initially arranged in a number of spikes pointing upwards (with a particularly large one topping his forehead),is, unusually, bright blue. Yuka sported a green coat reaching down to his knees, sporting black sections in correspondence to the sleeves's outer part (each of such sections going up to the high collar) and on the sides' lower parts, below the plain dark belt with a rectangular buckle which, together with the two vertically striped, overlapping hems placed on the front (completely superimposed from the waist up, but splitting some inches below it to create a slash), kept the garment closed. Yuka's pants were dark and loose (getting more fitting in correspondence to his ankles), while his plain shoes were light-colored.

(A/N: I hate super long character descriptions, so I usually just copy and paste them from the Fairy Tail wiki. I might stop them unless someone changes outfits and it's actually significant.)

"The gathering moonlight will surely melt Deliora soon." Yuka said.

"Yes, with the power of love it should be tonight or tomorrow that the demon be thawed." Sherry said.

"Which one is it!" Toby asked angrily.

"No need to get so angry about it." Yuka said.

"The Cold Emperor will surely be pleased with this progress." Yuka said.

"Yeah and once Deliora is melted, the Cold Emperor can finally destroy it once and for all." Toby said followed by a howl.

"Still we must search for the intruders that took down Angelica. They could try and get in his way."

"Yes, let's do it." Yuka said as they turned around and began to leave the cave.

"Why on earth are they trying melt Deliora! They don't know how terrifying it is!" Gray thought.

Once they were sure that three lackeys of the Cold Emperor were gone they came out from hiding.

"I'm not sure what they're planning on doing but it didn't sound good." Natsu said.

"Yeah, we should follow them and find out." Lucy suggested and Happy nodded in agreement.

"No, we're gonna stay here until night comes." Gray said.

"But it's like the middle of the day!" Natsu argued.

"I think that the moon and Deliora are connected somehow to the villagers' curse. That guy said something about gathering moonlight." Gray answered back.

"Yeah I heard something like that too." Lucy added.

"Ugh, I'm gonna die of boredom of I..." Natsu started but instantly fell back and started snoozing away. Lucy sweatdropped and said, "Jeez that guy is just pure instinct."

"Aye..."

They sat around for a few moments and Lucy started to get fidgety.

"I know I agreed to wait but I didn't think it would be this boring!" Lucy groaned.

"Oh wait I know! Open Gate of the Harp Constellation, Lyra!" Lucy declared. Out popped Lyra, who appears to be a young girl. She has waist length hair that curls at the end, and wears a pink bonnet on top of her head. Her cheeks have round blush marks, and she wears a long dress with heart prints by her waist. She wears leather shoes as well. She has small white wings and a large harp on her back.

"Hi Lucy! It's been so long since you summoned me! You never call me anymore!" Lyra greeted happily.

"Well your the one who can only be summoned like three days a month..." Lucy said indifferently.

"Oh right, so what song would you like for me to sing today?" Lyra asked.

"Anything you feel like singing." Lucy answered.

"Do you know any songs about fish?"

"Lyra is a great singer but I don't know if she has songs about fish." Lucy answered.

"Mira is a great singer and she sings me songs about fish."

 ** _Play OST: Lyra's Song_**

Lyra played her magical harp to play soothing and elegant music. Quelling all feelings of boredom and restlessness with her peaceful song. As Gray listened to the song, he began remembering the times that he had spent training with Ur. He remembered when she had first found him, amongst the rubble that Deliora had left behind when it destroyed his village. He was barely alive, and even after saving his life, she even agreed to teach him magic.

When they began training, Ur noticed that he had darkness in his heart and sought out to try and seal it away. However after training for some time, Gray had grown closer to his master and it seemed like his darkness was steadily going away. But alas, one day Gray heard that Deliora was in a northern country called Brago. Recklessly and without giving it a second thought, Gray went after it despite Ur and Lyon's protest. Then, he realized he was no match for Deliora and Ur had saved his life once again. And with her final bits of magic, sacrificed her life to use the Iced Shell spell to seal the demon forever."

 _"I will seal away your darkness."_ Ur's last words echoed in his heart as he was moved to tears. Silently crying, Lucy noticed that he had seemed to be trembling like he was crying.

"What's the matter Gray? Why are you crying?" Lucy asked worriedly

"Yeah what's wrong Gray?" Happy asked in concern. Gray sucked up his tears and runny nose and responded, "I-I wasn't crying."

"Awww, even tough guys like you have a soft side too huh? Maybe you should've played a more upbeat song Lyra." Lucy said.

"You should've said that in the first place." Lyra pouted.

 **Many hours later...**

Suddenly a purple light started to shine through the roof of the cave and on to Deliora. The light woke up all of the Fairy Tail wizards who were on the verge of going to sleep. Gray jerked up and narrowed his eyes.

"That light must be coming from the top of the temple, come on let's go check it out!" Natsu said and everybody followed him out of the cave. When they got back to the same place in the temple where they fell from they saw a large purple magic circle in the middle of the floor with a purple beam going through it.

"Who could've cast a magic circle here?" Lucy asked.

"Anyway, let's get to the top." Gray said

"Right."

 _"I can't let whoever this cold emperor guy is revive Deliora!"_ Gray thought.

There gathered a bunch of wizards that seemed to look like to be part of a cult, wearing strange clothing having a cloth as a mask with a moon symbol on it.

Team Natsu, once again hiding to see what they were up to.

"What are they doing?" Gray whispered.

"They're using the work moon drip, to try and melt the ice." Lyra answered.

"You're still here?" Lucy asked in shock.

"That's impossible there's no way they could melt iced shell." Gray responded and Lyra shook her head.

"Moon Drip can dispel any kind of magic."

Soon after, Yura, Sherry, the dog like person, and someone they deemed to be the cold emperor.

"Only a little while longer until my dreams are realized" the cold emperor said. Gray's eyes widened when he heard the voice.

"It can't be"

"Cold emperor, unfortunately we couldn't find any intruders. We suspect that it might have been the villagers who came up here."

"If that's the case then go and eradicate the village." He responded causing team Natsu to twist their faces in to shock and anger.

"Yes sir." Just then Natsu jumped out declaring that he was sick and tired of hiding. The Cold emperor's followers got ready for battle but he waved them off.

"What are you doing? I told you to go eradicate the village." He ordered and they just submit.

"Oh no you're not!" Natsu shouted as he dashed towards them. However he noticed bluish green colored ice coming towards him. However a blue ice that he was familiar with intercepted the magic and collided with it.

"Lyon..." The Cold Emperor a.k.a Lyon slowly removed his helmet. Sure enough it was the same silver haired boy that was his sibling student under Ur.Lyon is a slim young man of average height with a muscular and toned body.He has bluish silver hair, most of which are spiky strands that jut upwards on top of his head, except for some which are kept pointing down and partially cover the upper left part of his face. Lyon's eyes are slanted, with dark round pupils and surrounded by similarly dark lines. He has small, linear, dark eyebrows. He donned a small, light-colored earring on his left earlobe, which takes the shape of a stylized.

"It has been a long time hasn't it Gray?"

"Wait you know this guy?" Natsu asked.

"Yeah... Do you remember the kid that I told you about that I trained under Ur with?" Gray asked and Natsu nodded.

"This is him."

"I get it." Natsu said suddenly his body began to get covered in a glob of ice.

"Hey what the!?" Natsu yelled out confusingly.

"Go save the village, I'll take care of Lyon myself." Gray said as he kicked Natsu down to make roll down hill and get to the village.

"You jeeeerrrrrkkkkkk!"

"Why? Why are you trying to melt Deliora?" Gray interrogated.

"It's the only way I can prove that I've surpassed Ur. By defeating the thing that she couldn't, since you're the reason that she's gone." He responded as he held out his right hand. A magic circle the same color as his ice appeared and about 10 eagles made of ice were fired at Gray. Time seemed to move slow for Gray as he created a sword made of ice and prepared for the on coming attack. Gray destroyed each and every on coming projectile with ease.

"Not bad but you still use two hands for your ice magic?" Lyon asked, smirking.

"Of course, Ur taught us that. One handed molding magic is unbalanced and unstable." Gray answered.

"Ice Make: Hammer!" 

"I've surpassed that level long ago. Ice Make: Snow Ape." Lyon said, expressionless. With little effort his snow ape destroyed Gray's hammer leaving Gray in shock.

"I'm actually surprised that you dare even speak Ur's name since you're the one that killed her!" Lyon continued his relentless attack on Gray as he bombarded him with many ice eagles.

 _"What's wrong Gray? Or do you not know, your magic is only as strong as you are. Don't ever doubt your ability."_ Sasuke's words echoed in his brain and he smirked. In a flash, Gray created a dome of ice to protect himself.

"What's wrong Gray? Now you're going to hide behind this pathetic shield? It's ironic, it's just like how you run away from the truth that you killed Ur!"

"Ice Make: Snow Tiger!" Lyon declared and the icy feline approached to pounce on the dome. As soon as it was inches away from it, several spikes extended from the dome and impaled the tiger on several places causing it to break apart.

"Such a quick manipulation of his magic...

Such is the advantage of static Ice Make magic." Lyon said with a bit of surprise in his tone.

"I had almost forgotten..." Gray said as his dome began to disappear as well.

"I trained my butt off for two years to get to this point. And now I'm finally here. Sorry Lyon, but I'm not losing to you!" Gray declared.

"You must have forgotten that when were training under Ur, you were never able to touch me. Not even once." Lyon boasted with a prideful smoke.

"You and I both know that we're both different than the boys who used to fight in Ur's yard."

"Just to prove it to you, I'll end it all with one attack." Gray said as he got into a different stance than usual. Instead of his fist being inside of his opened hand, he brought his left arm over his right in front of him. Meanwhile Lyon started to die of laughter.

"Is this your so called secret weapon? If you were planning on killing us both using Iced Shell you're doing it all wrong." He laughed as Gray started to release a ton of magic power.

"Who said I was using Iced Shell?" Gray asked.

"Ice Make: Everest's Teardrop!" Gray declared as a gargantuan light blue magic circle appeared in the sky.

 **Next Chapter: Gray's Memories** **Alongside special Omake.**


	15. Gray's Memories

During Gray and Lyon's fight...

"Damn that bastard Gray, he's been nothing but a jerk since he came with us." Natsu grumbled to himself as he sniffed out the village's location. When he found where it was he started to melt the ice off of his body.

"This is nothing, his ice is nowhere near as cold as Gray's." Natsu said as he began his journey to the village.

Meanwhile Lucy and Happy had made it into the village already, waiting for the enemy to show up.

"I don't think that's going to work Lucy..." Happy said.

"Of course it will, there's only one way to get into the village right? They'll step on it hook line and sinker." Lucy boasted. She has created a measly pitfall trap that has been used to capture animals and enemies for centuries. It's one of the oldest tricks in the book.

"I don't think anyone is dumb enough to fall for that..." One of the villagers' commented. After about a few minutes of waiting there was suddenly orders to open the gates. When they opened, Natsu was jogging to them calling to them.

"Wait Natsu don't come any closer!" Lucy warned.

"Huh what are you talking about?" Natsu asked as he stopped just in front of the pitfall causing everyone to release a sigh of relief.

"What's this random spot of twigs and leaves?" Natsu asked as he stepped on it. The moment he did, he fell in to the trap causing everyone to be shocked by his stupidity.

"HOW DID HE FALL FOR THAT?"

"That's Natsu for ya!"

"Hey what's the big idea? You playing tricks on my?" Natsu questioned angrily.

"It was Lucy who did it Natsu!" Happy ratted out Lucy.

"I should've known!" Natsu exclaimed as he climbed out of the hole.

"No one likes a snitch cat!" Lucy said angrily.

"Punishment, Princess?" Virgo, her pink haired celestial spirit asked.

"But I don't get it, how did Natsu get to the village before them and he left after?..." Lucy wondered aloud.

Suddenly a large shadow started to approach the center of the village. They looked up and saw the giant rodent that Natsu and Gray were beating on in the forest earlier that day flying. It was carrying a gigantic bucket of green jelly.

"That big giant rat could fly!?" Lucy shouted.

"It seems the jelly took a lot longer to prepare than we thought." Sherry said.

"No, it actually benefited is, most of the wizards have gathered here as well." Yuka added.

"Wait what's in that bucket its carrying?" Lucy asked as a drop of the jelly fell out of the bucket.

"Jelly?..." She thought and as it got closer, Natsu tackled her out of the way.

"That stuff is dangerous!" Natsu shouted. When the drop of jelly hit the ground it melted the earth in that one spot.

"You mean they're going to drop all that corrosive Jelly on us!?" One of the villagers screamed in fear. And as he said that Angelica emptied out the bucket in a way that it would cover the whole village.

"EVERYONE MOVE TO THE CENTER OF THE VILLAGE! Happy take me up!" Natsu ordered.

"Aye Sir!" Happy responded as he lifted Natsu by his collar and brought him a good distance to the slowly falling jelly.

"Fire Dragon's..."

Natsu's belly expanded a large amount by inhaling a large amount of air.

"Roaaaaaarrrrrrrrr!" Natsu let out a huge breath of flames that spread across a large diameter. It evaporated most of the jelly except for an outer ring of our.

"Crap I didn't get all of it!" Natsu cursed as he watched the jelly rain down on the outer buildings of the village. Some damage was done to the village but very minimal compared to what could have happened.

"Is everyone okay?" Happy asked as he began to lower Natsu down to the ground.

"Yeah, no one's hurt." Lucy answered as she looked around to double check.

Suddenly Angelica charged at Natsu who easily dodged but Lucy got swept up by Angelica's feet.

"Lucy!" Natsu cried out. Suddenly Yuka and Toby dropped down in front of him blocking his path in trying to get to Lucy. He just barely saw the rodent drop down mid flight.

"Happy try and find Lucy for me." Natsu asked and Happy answered with his normal catchphrase. As he watched Happy fly off, the villagers decided that they would hide until this whole fight was over.

"Get out of my way..." Natsu warned in a gruff voice and neither Yuka nor Toby budged an inch.

"I said get out of my way!" Natsu repeated as he blasted a stream of fire from his fist at the two. But to Natsu's surprise he stood there without even so much as a scratch.

"You're out of luck. My wave magic can nullify any type of magic. Wizards such as yourself cannot beat me." Yuka said confidently. Toby grew long, green claws that he called Mega Mega Jellyfish. Claiming that one touch from his claws and you'll be paralyzed all over.

"Arooooooo, you'll never defeat us!" Toby declared angrily. Natsu grit his teeth in annoyance from having to deal with two weirdos.

"Take this you stupid rat!" Lucy shouted as she began to tickle the bottom of her feet. Angelica laughed so much that it distracted her from the spinning of her tail causing the three of them to fall down in the middle of the forest. Sherry instantly usesDoll Attack: Wood Doll that attacks Lucy, but she dodges it and in the middle of the air, summonsTaurus, who cuts Sherry's Doll with his axe.

"A celestial spirit? And not only that, a gold gate key? Impressive." Sherry said.

"Looooocy's body is always the best!" Taurus said with hearts in his eyes.

"To make your spirits say something like that and enjoy it... How indecent." Sherry said in disgust.

"I don't make them say that and I definitely don't enjoy that!" Lucy argued back.

"Well no matter, Celestial spirit wizards are always at a disadvantage against me." Sherry smirked.

Lucy commanded Taurus to go at Sherry, but he stops on the way, Sherry grins and Taurus attacks Lucy, but she narrowly dodges it.

"Taurus... Why?" Lucy questioned.

"I'm sorry Ms. Lucy I can't control myself right now!" Taurus said as he tried to strike her once more.

"My Doll magic allows me to control any object including Celestial Spirits." Sherry said as she forces Taurus to attack Lucy again. She dodged again and tried to force close Taurus' gate but failed.

"Silly girl, the Celestial wizard can't force the gate to close on their own... I wonder if having you stripped would be a suitable punishment!" Sherry said sadistically as Taurus was able to grab Lucy and pin her to the ground. Lucy has only arm covering her chest as she tried to resist her spirit.

"Close! Gate of the Golden Bull!" Lucy declared but Taurus wouldn't go away. More and more Taurus tried to resist, being Lucy that she forgive him for his actions.

"Lucy, I want to protect you but I can't control my own body!" Taurus said as he struggled against his will.

"If you want to protect me so badly then Close! Gate of the Golden Bull!" Lucy demanded with much more certainty in her tone and Taurus actually went away.

"She forced the gate close? But how?" Sherry thought.

"You're unlucky to have to deal with wizards from Fairy Tail." Lucy boasted as she cracked her whip.

"Very well then. I shall stop underestimating you. Doll Attack: Rock Doll!" Sherry said and a giant rock golem formed in front of Lucy.

"I don't think I have a spirit strong enough beat that!" Lucy shrieked as she fumbled through her keys trying to find a suitable spirit. She ran as fast as she could away from Sherry but the rock doll was more mobile than anyone would've thought. She reached a dead end when she realized that she ran all the way to a cliff.

"Noooooo! Don't do it!" Lucy begged as the golem was preparing to strike. The hard fist came down and Lucy just got out of the way, but only to end up further to the edge of the cliff.

However, the cliff started to crack, causing the chunk that Lucy was on to start plummeting to the beach.

"Why meeeee?"

Lucy groaned from the shores sand in pain.

"That's gonna hurt in the morning..." Lucy grumbled. However she barely had any time to breath because the same rock doll was already falling down towards her with the intention of making her splat like a bug.

She rolled out of the way just barely in time to save her skin.

 _"If I can get to the water I can summon Aquarius!"_ Lucy thought as she ran to the water but midway. Sherry who was also giving chase stopped too.

"What is this? So much magic power!" Lucy questioned as a bead of sweat dripped down her brow.

 _"It's coming from Lyon's direction..."_ Sherry thought nervously.

 **Meanwhile...**

Sasuke and Erza were riding a pirate sheep that they hijacked and was headed to Galuna Island. Sasuke was holding the book that they had been investigating for quite sometime.

 _"Soon I'll understand what's going on with this book."_ Sasuke thought outloud.

"Honestly I could care less about what happened in your vision. I'm going to apprehend these rule breakers. I won't even allow those fools to finish their job." Erza stated in a stern and cold tone, almost like a prison warden.

"Will you?" Sasuke asked.

"You don't think I can?" Erza snapped back.

"It's not a matter of if you can. It's about if you will." He responded.

"What's that supposed to mean? They've broken the rules of the guild and so the Master has sent me to retrieve them."

"Don't underestimate Gray or Natsu that's all I meant." He responded. And after a few moments of silence they began to approach the shore. Suddenly they see a humongous magic circle appear in the sky.

"What is that magic circle?" Erza questioned. Sasuke narrowed his eyes when he saw the magic circle.

"Gray..."

Suddenly a gigantic ice meteor started to come out of the magic circle.

"Ice? Don't tell me that's..." Erza started but she stopped when she saw Sasuke running towards the meteor. Not even waiting for the boat to reach the shore he started running across the ocean's surface.

Natsu was still in a stalemate with Yuka and Toby when he saw the giant magic circle appear.

"Gray you idiot! What're you doing!?" Natsu cursed.

"What kind of magic power is that?"

"It's humongous!"

Natsu took advantage of Yuka and Toby being distracted to knock them out by planting their faces into the cold hard ground.

"Rule #1 in a fight. Never turn your back on the enemy." Natsu smirked as he defeated them with ease. Natsu started to run back to the temple as fast as he could

"Now that they're out of the way. I need to destroy that thing. But I don't think I can with this power alone. Sorry Naruto, but I'm going to have to use it." He thought as looked at his hand turn into fire.

"Maker magic of this magnitude? Impossible! Not even Ur could pull off something like this!" Lyon bellowed.

"Ur... told you didn't she?... There's always... someone better..." Gray said in between breaths. He collapsed on to his hands and knees, completely exhausted after casting the spell.

"Are you saying that you've surpassed Ur? Where did you aquire so much strength!?" Lyon implored.

"Never forgetting the lessons... That Ur taught us. This maker magic is the product of the memories I've held on to for the past 10 years." Gray answered smiling weakly, fully collapsing onto his belly.

"So you plan on killing us both just to stop Deliora's revival!? Why would you go so far?" Lyon implored.

"To save Ur's life... That's all. And if I die here, that just shows how far I was meant to go." He responded and Lyon's eyes widened.

"Ur told me to tell you that she died... But that's not the truth. She's alive... as the ice." Gray stated.

"I've known that for a long time..." Lyon said, shocking Gray.

"But I don't care, I'm going to melt the ice and kill Deliora at any cost. Your death will be in vein! Did you forget that my specialty is active Ice Make? I can simply fly out of here and comeback once the damage is done" Lyon cackled like a madman.

"How are you going to do that... If Deliora is at the bottom of the ocean?" Gray answered back breaking Lyon out of his laughter.

"Fine I'll just have to destroy it then." Lyon said as he created a large dragon out of ice and it flew towards the falling meteor. However Lyon was shocked when the dragon shattered against it.

"Your Maker magic can't destroy Everest's Teardrop. It's too dense..."

Gray was about to drift into unconsciousness until he heard the sound of a thousand birds chirping. Lyon's face twisted with anger as he started to flee the area. As he made a new dragon to escape, he saw a person dressed in a black cloak with his hands coated in lightning and black flames. He jumped up towards the meteor and as his hand came into contact with the meteor, it combusted, shattering into a billion pieces.

 _"Unbelievable... Maker magic of that level, eradicated with a single blow."_ Lyon thought. Sasuke landed back down on the ground and walked towards Gray's unconscious body.

"How pathetic..."

 **Omake: Sasuke's day off**.

The Fairy Tail guild was rather quiet that day. A lot of people happened to be out on jobs that day and our core members have just returned from a job the previous day.

"Where the heck is everyone?" Natsu asked.

"Cana went out on a job with Shadowgear. Elfman went out on a job with Macao and Wakaba. And Master went to a hearing with the council." Mirajane answered. Gray looked around and noticed that someone else was missing as well.

"Where's Sasuke?" He asked.

"Oh he came early this morning and said he was taking the day off." Mirajane said which raised question marks amongst them.

"A day off? What does he even do when he's not in the guild?" Natsu asked.

"Wanna follow him around and find out?" Naruto asked smirking devilishly, Natsu mimicking him.

"No! We should respect his wish to have a day off and relax." Erza said sternly.

"You wanna know too, don't you?" Naruto asked as he snickered like a child.

"No I do not, I have better things to do than snoop around in the business of others." She responded.

"What are you, scared that he might catch you?" He asked and Erza frowned.

"That's not going to work on me. A ninja must see through deception. You should know that." Erza answered with teacher tone.

"It's okay, you don't have to come if you don't want to. Let's go guys, maybe we can catch him out on a date or something." Naruto said as he began to head towards the guild's exit. Erza's whole body shivered as she suddenly became restless and antsy.

 _"Hook. Line. And sinker. Girls love have something to gossip about no matter what."_ Naruto thought.

"Okay Natsu we're depending on your sense of smell to lead the way." Naruto said and his student began to actively sniff the air. He walked around on all fours like a dog.

"This way." He said as he caught whiff of Sasuke's precise location.

They found themselves in an allie within Magnolia's market street. They poked their heads out and watched Sasuke calmly walking down the streets.

"What do you think he's doing out here?" Erza whispered.

"I thought you didn't want to come." Naruto answered back and Erza blushed in embarrassment but pretended to act stuck up.

"I saw this as a good opportunity to test out my shinobi tracking skills." Erza responded.

"Suuuurrrreeee" Everyone said simultaneously.

They continued to follow him in secret, staying a far enough distance so they wouldn't be detected but unfortunately they were out of ear shot so if he were to have a conversation with someone they couldn't hear it very well. They watched him enter the Dango shop and sit down at a table that was closest to the window.

"A dango shop? He doesn't even like sweet dumplings..." Naruto thought. The waitress came and took his order and shortly after she brought him three onigiri and a clear case that had dumplings with sweet syrup drizzled over them. The snoopers all looked at each other with confused expressions, all probably thinking, "Who are the dumplings for?"

Once Sasuke finished his meal he wrapped the case of dumplings in a cloth and carried it like a bag. Once he left he started walking in the direction of the guild hall. As they followed him through the market teenage girls and women in their early twenties were all fawning over Sasuke. Of course being his usual self ignored all their advances, disappointing every last one of them.

"He must be going on a date, a male his age couldn't possibly turn down that many attractive girls approaching him if he was single." Erza whispered.

"Nah he's always been like that." Naruto responded.

"Well there could be one other possibility..." Gray said and everyone froze in their tracks and had blank expressions.

"Naaaaaahhhhhh" they all said simultaneously. Suddenly he stopped in front of a flower shop. He walked in and the possibilities of a date continued to grow on everyone's minds. The shop owner was a woman who looked pretty young, around her mid to early twenties. She had an slightly above average body. Not as curvaceous as Erza or Lucy but more endowed than Levy. She had blue eyes and platinum blonde hair which she tied in a high pony tail and had a bangs covering her right eye. She was wearing a orange blouse and black pants with a beige apron draped over her and knee high black boots.

"You're quite popular with the ladies huh? How may I help you today?" She asked in a very chipper tone.

"You look a lot like someone I used to know..." Sasuke responded.

"What, like an ex-girlfriend?" She teased and Sasuke sighed.

"Can I get a bouquet of those over there? I want the largest one that you can make." Sasuke asked as he pointed to the cherry blossoms that were by the window.

"Oooohhhh, Cherry blossoms they're so beautiful. Did you know that Magnolia has special cherry blossoms that bloom once a year called 'Rainbow Sakura'?"

"No, I didn't." Sasuke answered.

"Every year around the fall Magnolia's cherry blossom trees turn into a variety of colors giving it the name Rainbow Sakura." She explained.

"Oh is that so..." He responded sounding disinterested. She continued to ramble on about

"Okay, the cherry blossoms bouquets are a bit expensive are you sure you want the biggest one?"

"Money isn't an issue." He answered.

"Okay, may I ask who these are for?"

She asked as she set a large sheet of paper on her table and began collecting and organizing the cherry blossoms.

"That's personal... Sorry..." Sasuke said, disappointing everyone who eavesdropping on their conversation.

"Boooo that's no fun." She said until a smirk came across her face.

"I've seen you with Erza-san a lot lately. I wonder..." She said as she smirked at Sasuke. Erza blushed at the mention of her name in such a manner and listened even more intensely to hear what Sasuke's reaction would be.

"Just make the bouquet woman." Sasuke said deadpanning and she started laughing as she finished assembling the bouquet. Naruto and Natsu chuckled at Erza's confused expression until Gray shushed them in order to not get them caught. She brought the flowers over to the register and started punching up numbers.

"Well whoever they're for, they're lucky." She said.

"I don't know about that..." He said in a low voice to himself.

"Huh? Did you say something?" She asked and shook his head.

"Okay so your total is 26,000 Jewell." She said and everyone's jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

"That's... kind of expensive." Sasuke said.

"They're out of season right now so they're hard to come by right now. But I thought money wasn't an issue for you." She said.

"It isn't. The price just caught me off guard is all." He responded as he pulled out three ten-thousand dollar bills.

"I need to go on another job now... My rent is due in a few days..." She gave him back his change and he pocketed it. He placed the handles of the bag that contained his dumplings around his wrist and carried the large bouquet in his hand. The shopkeeper noticed this and asked,

"How come you don't use your left hand for anything?"

Sasuke began walking out the door and said, "Because I don't have one." Her eyes became as wide as dinner plates and her jaw nearly dropped to the ground as she was left speechless. Sasuke walked through the town peacefully with no disturbances for a while. None of his fangirls even bothered either. Probably because of the flowers that he was carrying in his hand.

"Look at them, their spirits look broken." Erza said as she noticed the weeping fangirls.

"So when is something interesting finally gonna happen?" Natsu asked.

"We're about to find out where he's taking those flowers to." Gray whispered in response as they started to reach the ends of Magnolia.

"Okay guys it's the moment of truth." Naruto said as they followed Sasuke to the outskirts of Magnolia. They walked and walked until they came upon a cliff with a line tree by it and three tombstone next to it. Sasuke walked up to each grave and placed an item on top of them. He placed the dumplings on top of the first grave, the flowers on the second and a book with an orange cover on the third. Sasuke sat down and took his sword off his side and placed it next to him.

"Who's graves are those?" Erza asked as she looked at Naruto was taken back by his expression. Naruto had a mixture of emotions on his face at the moment. Shocked, sad, happy, all at once when he saw the names written on the grave.

"Itachi, Sakura, and Kakashi-sensei..." Naruto said under his breath to no one in particular.

"Itachi is his older brother right?" Gray asked and Naruto nodded.

"Sakura and Kakashi were both apart of your team right?" Natsu asked and he nodded again.

"You lot can come out now." Sasuke said. They froze for a moment but decided to step out.

"When did you know we were following you?" Erza asked.

"Since the Dango shop. There's too many of you to really be effective at trying to follow me." He answered.

"I figured as much." Gray said.

"Oh well, just means we gotta get better at following people." Natsu chuckled.

Naruto stood in front of the graves while the rest of them were chatting. The waves crashed along the cliff as a pleasant quiet came over him. He looked up towards The setting sun on the horizon and smiled.

 _"He's come a long way hasn't he?"_ Naruto said to himself.

"Hey Naruto come on! We're going back to Lucy's house to hang out!" Natsu called out.

"Coming!"

 **Later that night...**

Two hooded figures walked along the coast of Magnolia up to three graves that rest under a single tree.

"Oh what a sweet gesture..." One of them said. The other hooded figure walked up to the grave with the large bouquet and picked them up The flowers began to shrivel up and soon turned to dust.

"I hate cherry blossoms and people who don't keep their promises..."

 **A/N: Why is this Omake special? Because it's Canon to the story!**

Next Chapter: Galuna Island Saved!


	16. Galuna Island Saved!

**Hey guys I'm finally back. I haven't written in like 3 months because I fractured the Ulna in my right arm and could not write comfortably for months. I'm still going through physical therapy but I'm okay now. I haven't given up this story, there's a lot more to come! Thanks for bearing with me. Enjoy!**

The dark haired ice wizard's eyes began to twitch as consciousness began to come over once more. He slowly opened his eyes, his vision blurry, but he could make out a few things. There were rays of light shining through the tent indicating that it was day time. Wiping his eyes to get his vision cleared up and he saw one of the women from the village hovering over him.

"You're awake. Are you feeling better?" The woman asked as he evaluated himself. He was covered in several bandages and when he moved he felt the wounds he received in full force, wincing when ever he made too sharp of a movement.

 _"I'm actually alive? But how?"_ Gray thought to himself. Then he recalled to the moment right before he became unconscious.

 _"A thousand birds... Chidori..."_

"Where am I exactly?" He asked. She told him that this was a storage area that the village had.

"Some people had to come here because they're homes were destroyed. But thanks to the pink haired boy, most of the village is okay.

"I see. Do you know where he and the rest of my friends are?" She pointed towards the exit of the tent and responded, "They're in that big tent right over there. They told me to direct you there once you had woken up."

Gray slowly got up, his wounds still bothering him. He smirked a little as he held on to his ribs. _"Man, I really let Lyon do a number on me."_ He thought as he walked outside of the tent. He came face to face with the entrance of the large tent the woman directed him to. He let out a deep sigh before separating the curtain doors. He immediately froze from the death glares being directed towards him.

"You made me wait, you must not like your internal organs." Erza said scarily. Lucy and Happy were tied up, sitting on their knees tears flowing through their eyes. Gray was just frozen in place and there was a palpable tension in the air.

"Lucy has already gotten me up to speed with everything that's going on here. As soon as we find Natsu we're leaving." Erza said sternly.

"Wait if Lucy's got you up to speed then you should know what's happening on this island." Gray said.

"And what would be your point?" Erza asked coldly.

"We can't just leave these people like this! I have to-" Gray stopped mid sentence when Erza stepped in between him and the tent entrance. She pulled out a sword and pointed it at Gray's throat.

"You were sent here to apprehend these fools, so you intend to betray the Master too?" She questioned assertively as she backed him into the corner of the tent. But the stern look on her face changed slightly to one of surprise. Gray grabbed the blade of her sword and pointed it to the dark emblem on his chest.

"I'll put everything on the line to do what's right..." He started while Lucy Happy started to get even more scared.

"Woah the temperature just dropped in here." Lucy said.

"Do what you want. I'm seeing this through to the end and you can't stop me." Gray said, mustering up all of his resolve. He walked right by Erza and headed towards the exit.

"Wait, Gray." Sasuke said. Gray turned around one last time and looked at Sasuke. Gray had expected some kind of disappointed or angered expression on from his master but his expression remained the same as it always is. No words. No reaction. Gray knew that Sasuke was the reason he's still alive but he hasn't said anything about it. Maybe he'll say something later...

"I never know what's going on in his head..." Gray thought.

"We're going to take care of the villagers but first we have to deal with Deliora." Sasuke said.

"As much as I want to disagree, if I do we'd only waste more time so we'll deal with the immediate problems for now." Erza said as she put her sword away while Lucy and Happy let out a sigh of relief.

"That doesn't mean you're off the hook!" Erza warned.

"Y-yes ma'am."

"I'll call Naruto here." Sasuke said as he pulled out one of Naruto's special kunai.

Naruto was getting ready to leave his home to go the guild hall when he suddenly felt a sensation in his body.

 _"Sasuke's calling me... Did something happen?"_ He thought.

He appeared before them and had a serious expression plastered on his face.

"What's going on, did something happen?" He asked.

"I'll fill you in on the details soon, but I need you to find Natsu and stop him from doing whatever he's doing and bring him back here."

"I don't know what's going on but there's gotta be a reason for it so okay." Naruto said as he exited the tent.

Then...

Lyon was settled in a camp not too far from the runes. As he recalled the previous night he grit his teeth in anger.

"I can't let him surpass me. Now I truly must revive Deliora." Lyon murmured to himself, balling up his fist in anger. Zalty came to him from behind and said, "Deliora won't need much more to melt him, if we act quickly we can melt him before the wizards interfere."

"Zalty you're as cunning as ever. Tell me, who was that man in the black cloak, do you know?" Lyon asked.

"That was Sasuke Uchiha. He's slowly been making quite the name for himself. He's quite strong." He answered. Lyon gripped the fabric of his pants as he remembered Ur's words. _"There's always someone better..."_ These words made him furious. He was set out on destroying the demon once and for all. But Gray of all people had managed to stop him, and this made Lyon furious.

He was trying to revive the demon that destroyed all of their lives. But he was also doing to world a favor, one less demon from the books Zeref to deal with.

"I would like to lend you a hand but unfortunately I'm not up to go up against people as strong as they are." Zalty said.

"That's fine, do you know what has happened to Toby and the others?" Lyon asked and Zalty shrugged his shoulders.

"If they're not here they must have either been captured or simply still defeated."

"I see. I do hope they're alright."

"I am well Lyon-sama." Sherry said as she came around the corner.

"That's good. What happened?" Lyon asked.

"I was fighting that blonde girl and we both stopped when we saw that gigantic ice meteor begin to fall. That must've been your doing. Wasn't it?" She asked. Lyon grit his teeth and clenched his fist in frustration.

"Damn it..." He cursed.

"That magic was the work of Gray Fullbuster who seems to have become quite the ice molding wizard." Zalty said. Sherry was filled with utter shock, unbelieving that someone other than Lyon was capable of ice magic on that level.

"We'll finish thawing out Deliora tonight. With the amount of moonlight we've cast on the demon even one person will be enough for the ritual tonight." Lyon said and suddenly the building started to rumble and tip over one side.

"Jeez I usually destroy things by accident. Doing it on purpose takes a lot of work." Natsu said as he continued to punch out the support pillars of the temple. He used a roar to put holes from the bottom floor to the top. Lo and behold, Lyon was up there scowling at him.

"What do you think you're doing you puny little fire wizard?" Lyon implored.

"Heh, I knew I smelled you up there." Natsu smirked as he used flames from his feet to propel himself up to the top floor. However he was met with an extremely thick wall of ice and he plummeted back down to the bottom.

"Zalty, can you at least deal with him until the night? I will be going down to Deliora's cave. Sherry, you go to the top of the temple and perform the ritual the moment the moon comes out. Just you should be more than enough to melt Deliora at this point." Lyon dished out orders.

"That would be nice but, he's already gone." Zalty said. The ice disappeared and Natsu was nowhere to be found.

"I'll fix the temple, you focus on defeating Deliora." Zalty said as he jumped down the hole.

Natsu fell to the ground on a bed of leaves holding his head in pain.

"Ouch... I didn't think he'd make such a thick wall of ice so quick." Natsu said outloud to himself.

"How the heck did I end up out here?"

"Jeez, we leave you alone for a second and here you are doing an S-Class mission without permission." A voice said from behind Natsu. The latter's head whipped around to see his mentor leaning against a tree.

"N-Naruto what are you doing here?" Natsu asked in shock.

"I was asked to come here and find you." He answered.

"Darn, Gramps asked you too?" Natsu asked feeling his chances of completing the mission dwindle.

"Nah, Sasuke asked me to. I don't know what's going on but I don't think you're in any trouble." Naruto answered.

"So wait, Sasuke's here too?" Natsu asked and Naruto nodded.

"So let's walk back to where they are and on the way you can tell me what's been going on here on this island." Naruto said as he began to walk down the hill back towards the village. Natsu followed him just sightly behind as he explained the situation on the island and everything that's happened so far.

"Yeah, and then Gray used his ice meteor thing that Sasuke told him to never use." Natsu said.

"Oooohhhh was he really that strong to make Gray do something like that?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Dunno."

They regrouped with Sasuke and the others at the village's storage area. Upon walking in to see Erza's scowl Natsu immediately tried to turn around and leave. Unfortunately for him, Naruto grabbed him by his collar before he could move anywhere.

"Just where were you all this time Natsu?" Erza asked in a threatening tone.

"He was trying to destroy the temple." Naruto said.

"No I wasn't! I was trying to turn it on its side so no moonlight could get through." Natsu defended himself.

"Well, now we'll have to go back to the temple and fix it. Even if we prevent the melting of Deliora, that doesn't mean we're not destroying village property." Erza said.

"Gray, you think you have enough magic power to fix a few support pillars?" Sasuke asked.

"Probably. Depends how many there are. Maybe by the time we get there I'll have more magic power." He answered.

"At any rate we'll let them thaw out Deliora and destroy the demon once and for all." Sasuke said.

"No way! Do you have any idea what that ice is? I'm not gonna let Lyon kill Ur like that!" Gray protested and Sasuke raised his eyebrow.

"Kill her? I thought she sacrificed her life to save the both of you from Deliora!?" Lucy injected.

"That's true, but she isn't dead. She is the ice that Deliora is encased in. She's still alive." He answered.

"That's why I can't let Lyon melt the ice, if I do then everything Ur did will be for nothing. It's my fault that Lyon is like this. My selfishness and desire of revenge led to Ur's death and made him walk down path of hatred." Gray said somberly.

"That's why I have to be the one to take him down! And no one else! This is something I have to do alone." Gray finished with conviction but also with uncertainty.

"You've grown strong over the past few years and you learned many things but you seem to be forgetting the most important one." Sasuke said.

"Do not try to shoulder everything by yourself just because you have power now. If you do, you'll be no different from who I was in the past or who Lyon is trying to be right now." Sasuke said.

"No matter how powerful you become, never forget your friends! That's a lesson I wish I understood so many years ago." Sasuke said.

"Well put. You're a member of Fairy Tail through and through." Erza said with a warm smile. Naruto looked up towards the sky and smiled.

 _"Kakashi-Sensei... Sakura... Itachi... Are you watching?"_ He thought.

"However... If you really want to cure Lyon of his hatred, the only way is to get rid of the true source of his hatred." Sasuke said.

"Destroying Deliora should do it. But it can't just be by anyone. Gray has to be the one to do it." He continued.

"But that doesn't mean we'll let you go through it alone." Naruto said and Gray perked his head up. The latter felt a hand on his shoulder. Startled by the sudden feeling he whipped his head around to see his pink haired rival with a grin plastered all over his face.

"I got your back pal. Always." He said easing a bit of his worries.

"We've got your back too." Lucy said giving a thumbs up, Happy repeating his catch phrase and Erza giving him a nod of approval. Gray teared up and said through his soft sobs,

"I love you guys..."

"Ummm guys!" Happy called out from above. They have their attention to the blue feline and he said, "Someone's already fixing the temple!"

"Good, now you can conserve your magic power." Sasuke said to Gray.

 _"But can I really defeat Deliora?..."_ The latter thought.

"Now all we have to do is wait for nightfall." Erza commented.

"Nice work Happy." Natsu praised.

"Umm by the way what are we gonna do with these guys?" Lucy asked, pointing towards a tied up Toby and Yuka.

"To think we'd been defeated in one blow from him..." Yuka sulked.

"It was a sneak attack!" Toby yelled.

"No need to yell about it..."

"Just leave them there..." Everyone said simultaneously.

A few hours passed and dusk began to roll in.

"It's time to get moving." Erza said. They started making their way towards the temple as the moon slowly began to rise into the air. They watched it and suddenly a pillar of purple light began to shine down on the temple.

"Come on let's pick up the pace." Naruto said as they began to actually run towards the temple. Suddenly an incredibly loud piercing roar erupted along the entire island. Everyone stopped to cover their ears from the sudden noise.

"That's so loud!" Lucy yelled out.

"It's Deliora! Come on we have to hurry!" Gray shouted and once the echoes of the roar finally subsided they began a full sprint towards the temple.

Lyon watched as the purple light shined down onto Deliora's encasement. Just as he had hoped, the ice was converting to its liquid counterpart.

 _"In just meer moments, I'll finally be able to realize my dream."_ Lyon thought as he closed his eyes, focusing on the upcoming task at hand. Once Deliora began to roar he steeled himself for the up and coming battle. But suddenly he heard several voices behind him and he immediately created an large ape to intercept the foes. The ape entered the darkness of the cave entrance and not a moment later it came flying back, shattering as it crashed into Deliora.

Naruto, Sasuke, Gray and a flame fist covered Natsu came into the cave.

"Stop this Lyon! You know what'll happen if Iced Shell melts!" Gray yelled out.

"You're too late now. As you can see, Deliora is almost free." He responded calmly turning his head slightly to see them. He narrowed his eyes at Sasuke and recalled the last person he saw as he made his getaAway from Gray's meteor.

 _"Sasuke Uchiha... He's the one who was able to destroy that huge meteor with a single blow... But the other one... I've never seen him before, where did he come from?"_ Lyon thought as he drifted his attention towards Naruto.

"Since it seems you have no intention of leaving, I'll have to deal with you first." Lyon declared as he held his hand out.

"Ice Make: Snow Dragon!" And the flying ice reptile sprung into life.

"Ice Make: Snow Mammoth!"

"And one more! Ice Make: Snow Dino!" A Tyrannosaurus Rex of ice sprung into action. The monsters rushed the four of them and Gray took a deep breath. He jumped forward smashing his fist into his open hand.

"Ice Make: Prison!" He declared as a large cage encased the large frozen animals. Gray's head pulsed with an excessive amount of pain after he cast his spell.

 _"Damn I really haven't recovered all that much... I've only got enough magic for about one or two more spells..."_ He thought.

The creatures bashed and gnawed on the gate several times but to no avail.

"How is that possible!?" Lyon questioned as he breathed a little heavy from exerting a large amount of magic.

"Ur told you didn't see?... One handed maker magic... Will always lose to two..." Gray said as his friends proceeded to destroy the creatures with their rasengan, chidori and iron fist of the fire dragon respectively.

Deliora roared once again causing the entire cave to rumble and several stalactites to fall from the roof. Everyone was forced to dodge the falling objects but Gray took this opportunity to attack Lyon. He approached him with taijutsu but Lyon was a bit more agile than he had imagined.

"Trying to get the jump on me in the middle of the chaos? You always were a shrewd one." Lyon said until he backed away from Gray's round house kick but his back hit an ice cold wall.

"What!?" Lyon cursed as he was in point blank range.

"You said it yourself, I'm a shrewd one." Gray said as he punched Lyon in his midsection with his fist covered in ice. He shattered the wall of ice and sent Lyon sailing to the wall of the cave next to the entrance.

"Gray the ice!" Naruto warned as the ice around Deliora reached to its ankles.

Meanwhile...

Erza was holding Sherry by the back of her dress, preventing her from performing the ritual any longer.

"You're too late! Deliora is already melted in the name of love!" She declared and Erza sighed.

"Lucy hand me some rope." Erza ordered.

"Yes ma'am!" She answered and she followed her order.

"Tying me up is useless, we've already won!" Sherry said as Erza restrained her.

"Our comrades are below this temple right now dealing with your leader and Deliora. Though we're not really enemies, we're not allies either." Erza rebuttaled as she tied the finishing knots on her restraints.

Deliora let out one last mighty roar before it attempted to make its first move in 10 years.

"I don't have enough magic to defeat Deliora..." Gray said. He turned when he heard the sound of knuckles cracking.

"Heh, I can take him." Natsu said, smirking as he cracked his knuckles.

"Let's use that move Gray!" Natsu said as he stretched. Deliora's giant fist began to descend upon them as Gray created a giant gauntlet made of ice. Natsu jumped up into the palm of the large hand and Gray grabbed hold of his body. He planted his foot, focusing all of his remaining every into this throw.

"Natsu and Gray's secret art: Fire Dragon's Javelin!" They both declared as Gray launched Natsu towards Deliora's Torso, completely boring a hole in the demon's chest.

Starting from the chest going outward, the demon began to break apart and disintegrate. The demon roared one last time in agony it shattered apart.

"No... It was my dream... And they ruined it...!" Lyon said as he crawled on the floor towards the demon, tears in his eyes as he watched his dream literally shatter.

"You're naive..." Sasuke said and Lyon stopped and turned his head to face him.

"Even if we didn't come here and you still melted Deliora, the result would've been the same." He continued.

"You must have never fully read the effect of Iced Shell. Of course the caster themselves turn to ice and encase the target forever. But while being inside the Iced Shell, the target's life force is sapped away each and every moment, little by little." Sasuke explained.

"So you mean..." Naruto started.

"All this time I spent melting the ice... Was to see it's last breath? It's dying moments?..." Lyon asked, his tears falling completely now.

Naruto looked at Lyon with sympathy.

 _"Thank you Ur... You saved me once again..."_ Gray thought as tears rushed down his face and he hooded his eyes with his hand.

"Your life isn't over you know. You need to find what it is that's important to you now. And I'm sure witnessing this, you've realized it haven't you?" Naruto asked Lyon who didn't respond, who just faced the other way.

"I was called here but I feel like I didn't do much of anything." Naruto said.

"I called you here for this." Sasuke said as he pulled out the mysterious book. Once Deliora's form completely disappeared, the book began to how glow a red color. Sasuke tossed Naruto the book and he caught it. Quickly opening it the, the page with the number 2 on it was visible now to everyone. The seal began to break apart and form images and words on the page. The image showed Naruto and Sasuke fighting against Kaguya and the words below read,

 _Two young men, one represented by darkness, the other by light. They defeated the ring leader of the beast's revival, Kaguya, the mother of all chakra._

"Hey that's us!" Naruto pointed out and only caused this situation to become even more confusing.

"There's one thing we've learned, this book's pages are revealed by directly defeating demons from the book of Zeref." Sasuke said.

"So all we gotta do is hunt them down and take them out and we'll see everything in this book" Naruto added.

"It isn't that easy though. No one knows who or where the demons are. The only thing we know is that they're alive somewhere in this world." Sasuke said.

"Right."

Erza and Lucy came jogging through the cave entrance and were in awe at the sight. The demon was no longer anywhere to be seen, neither was the shell of ice it was trapped in.

"Where's Deliora?" Lucy asked.

"It's over, it's been destroyed." Sasuke answered as they looked over towards Gray. The latter began walking over to where the demon once stood and saw that the water that came to be from the melting of Iced Shell flowed out into the sea. He collapsed on to his knees at the bank of the 'river' and placed his hands in the water. He swore he could feel the warmth and magic of his master's love for him and his sibling student.

 _"It feels as though a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders."_ He thought. He turned around and rested his back on a large rock that was nearby and closed his eyes to rest. But it was short lived when his loud friend came from behind the rubble

"All right we beat Deliora, I'd say it's a job well done!" Natsu said smiling from ear to ear as Happy flew over to high five him.

"Wrong!" Erza interjected.

"Deliora's defeat had nothing to do with their request, the villagers are still in peril." She said.

"What!? After all that they're still not cured!?" Natsu yelled in disbelief.

"Let's take care of the island first, the quicker we get out of here the better." Naruto whispered to Sasuke who nodded in response.

"Well let's get going then." Naruto said smiling.

"You guys go on ahead, I'll catch up." Gray said.

"Are you sure you're all right?" Erza asked and he nodded. They all proceeded to exit the cave, leaving just Gray and Lyon there. The latter leaned himself up against one of the stalagmites and looked at Gray from the corner of his eye.

"Why are you still here?" Lyon asked.

"I'm tired, and they don't need me to destroy the moon anyway." He answered.

"Ridiculous..."

"So what are you going to do now?" Gray asked. Lyon looked at the steady flowing water for a moment and turned away.

"Ur is gone and so is Deliora. I have nothing left to live for now." Lyon said depressingly.

"You're talking nonsense, aren't those guys your comrades?" Gray asked.

"Yes, but-"

"But nothin'. If they're your comrades then you must live, for the sake of them." Gray interjected.

"That's how I've gotten to this point. So you can do it too. After all... We are sibling students." He continued as he struggled to get to up and leave the cave. Lyon closed his eyes as he drifted into deep thought.

"SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THEY'RE HUMANS TRANSFORMED INTO DEMONS?" Naruto shouted when he saw the forms of all the villagers.

"If you were listening earlier then you would know..." Erza scolded

"... Seriously I don't know where your mind wanders sometimes." Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, the same way his father used to.

"Hmmm I've been wondering for a while if I could destroy the moon." Naruto mused.

"Are you actually considering it?!" Lucy yelled.

"Won't know unless you try." Natsu said and Lucy slapped him in the back of the head.

"Don't encourage him!"

"Hypothetically speaking, how much power does he actually have at this point?" Erza asked Sasuke who looked up at the sky in thought. An audible 'hmmm' came from his throat as he calculated in his head.

"There's no real way to fully measure his power. But if I had to make a guess, he could destroy the planet if he wanted to." He answered, leaving only Lucy in shock. Erza just seemed to ponder over this information.

"Great, then you can destroy the moon no problem then." Erza said and almost everyone's eyes nearly popped out of their skull.

"Cool!" Natsu cheered and Lucy bonked him on the head.

"Do you have any idea what destroying the moon would do?" Gray asked.

"You got any better ideas Gray?" Erza asked and the ice wizard backed off quietly, not wanting to anger the red head.

 _"There's something I'm missing here. She's usually level headed but she just suggested something Natsu would."_ Sasuke thought. He activated his Sharingan and looked up at the sky. He couldn't see magic as well as he could see chakra but it was doable. He saw a purple like covering hovering high in the sky like a cloud. _"What is that?"_ He thought as his eyes narrowed. Then he smirked, figuring out exactly what was going on now.

"I see, so that's what's going on." Sasuke said.

"Huh? What's going on?" Naruto asked. Erza put her hand on his shoulder and said, "You'll see."

Naruto went to the outskirts of the village as to avoid Kurama crushing what remained of the village. However instead of using chakra mode, he summoned Kurama normally and immediately got to work creating a tailed beast bomb.

"Hey, Naruto. Don't make it too big." Sasuke called out.

"Got it." He responded. Kurama fired the tailed beast ball and much to their surprise it stopped rather short of the Moon and exploded prematurely. However, the shock went away once they saw the broken barrier that revealed the moon with it's real color.

"Oh I get it now." Naruto smiled and Kurama disappeared.

"The moon drip evaporated and caused a film of crystalized gas, the reflecting moon light caused the villager's memories to become hazy. Hence why they think they're humans transformed into demons and not the other way around." Erza explained.

"So that means a job well done right?" Natsu asked with a grin.

"Aye!"

"Not even close, you four are still in huge trouble." Erza warned causing the ones in question to shake in fear.

"Well if the job is over then we can go home right?" Naruto asked.

"Hold on a second, we would appreciate if you celebrated our memories return with us." The chief of the village asked.

"I'd love to party with you guys!" Natsu cheered.

"I don't know if I've got the heart to party with demons." Lucy said with uncertainty in her tone.

They celebrated and partied all night long and just when they were about to leave they stumbled across a forgotten task.

"Say what do you think we should do with these numbskulls?" Naruto asked. Everyone shifted their gaze to the three tied up wizards against the tree.

"I say we leave them be, they're not much of a threat to us now anyway." Sasuke suggested. Everyone agreed for the most part but everyone was still wondering something.

"I have to ask, why do you follow the cold emperor?" Lucy asked and they began to explain their story.

"When we were kids, our homes, family, friends were all killed by Deliora." Cheria said and everyone was a bit surprised.

"Wait so you're victims of Deliora too? Gray asked and Toby whimpered, a sign that this was true.

"Yes, Lyon told us that he would get rid of the demon once and for all so we decided to follow him so we can have peace of mind knowing that Deliora could never destroy any more loved ones ever again." Yuka said with a saddened expression.

"You guys should take Lyon and join a guild. It'll be good for the lot of you to live normal lives, since Deliora is gone." Gray encouraged. Sasuke cut the ropes that binded them and told them where they could find Lyon.

"I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid we can't accept your reward. You see our guild never officially accepted the request so we can't accept compensation." Erza said.

"Well then at least allow me to give you the money as a gift instead." The chief smiled.

"I'm afraid not, we will take the gate key you mentioned in the flyer though." Erza responded.

"Score!" Lucy quietly celebrated.

"We'll take the money. She doesn't speak for us." Naruto said as he and Sasuke stood over the chief who sweatdropped.

 _Bonk!_

Erza hit both of them over the top of their heads and said,

"Yes I do, and we're leaving."

"Are you ready Big sis, Big bro?" The captain of the pirate ship they hijacked called out.

"How many times do I have to say that I'm not your bro?" Sasuke grumbled.

"Yes, we'll be boarding now." Erza answered.

"Why do we have to ride that thing? Can't Naruto just teleport us there?" Natsu complained.

"Quit your whining, or do you wanna experience that punishment sooner?" Gray asked.

"Noooo, I never wanna go through THAT again!" Natsu screamed in fear.

"Somebody wanna fill me in on what 'that' is?" Lucy asked.

Once they boarded, the ship unfolded the sails they started their steady drift back towards Hargeon. The Islanders waved good bye, wishing for them to come back and visit. Lyon and his crew silently watched from afar, smiling as they drifted away.

"You didn't want to say goodbye to your old friend?" Sherry asked.

"Nah, he's fine."

"Say... Is it fun to be in a guild?"


	17. The Phantom Lord

Naruto and the others had finally made it back to Magnolia after completing their S-Class mission.

"We're finally back in Magnolia!" Natsu cheered.

"It's good to be back, I think I'll take the day off today." Gray said as he began to deviate from the group. At least until Erza grabbed him by the back of his collar.

"Thought you could get away? Or did you forget you have punishment that awaits you?" Erza questioned and Gray started to sweat an abnormal amount.

"If Master makes us do THAT again I don't know if I'll survive it!" Happy cried in fear.

"Can someone just tell me what this punishment is?" Lucy asked.

"Don't worry about it Lucy. I'll talk to the old guy for us. He loves me." Natsu said with a reassuring grin.

"Don't think you can talk your way out of this one Natsu." Erza smirked as she put her hand on his shoulder. That reassuring grin turned into an extremely nervous smile as sweat began dripping off his body the same way Gray's did.

"NOOOOO I DON'T WANNA DIE!" Natsu cried out as Erza dragged him away.

"Oh crap, I don't know if I can survive THAT again!" Gray bellowed.

"CAN SOMEONE JUST TELL ME WHAT THEY MEAN BY THAT?" Lucy shouted.

"I'd tell you but we don't know either." Naruto said.

"Whatever it is, it's probably extremely embarrassing." Sasuke added.

They walked through the city and everyone was receiving strange looks from the citizens. They whispered amongst each other as if something terrible happened.

"What's up with them?" Naruto asked.

"They look... Scared?" Gray mused.

"The last time the town was like this was when Lisanna died." Erza said.

"Something's happened to the guild hall!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Come on let's move!" Natsu said as they started to run towards their precious guild hall. Once they got there, they were frozen by what had become of the guild hall.

"What are those things? Iron poles?" Naruto wondered.

"Who the hell did this to our guild?" Natsu growled, as he balled up his fist and began shaking in anger.

"It was Phantom... They got us good." A voice said from behind them. They turned to see that it was Mirajane who looked devastated. They entered building and went downstairs to the basement where all the members of Fairy Tail nested their broken spirits.

"Oh welcome back kiddies. How'd the job go?" Makarov asked with slurred speech.

"What are you guys all just sitting around down here for? Phantom destroyed our guild hall!" Natsu yelled.

"I already told everyone here, we're not going to go to war over a destroyed building!" Makarov said with authority.

"Master, this is a dire situation. I believe we should take some sort of action." Erza said.

"For what? The jerks attacked when no one was here... Is that really something to get so worked up about?" Makarov said as he chugged another mug of beer.

"No one was here?" Erza asked.

"They attacked during the night after everyone had already gone home." Mira answered.

"Those phantom jerks. How could they do this to our guild hall..." Jet grumbled.

"Wanna go take them out?" Droy asked.

"Our relationship with Phantom was never friendly, but they've never attacked us like this." Max said.

"We'll take job requests down here until the upstairs is repaired and that's that." Makarov said.

Natsu punched and destroyed the request board gathering everyone's attention.

"Uh-uh! Ain't gonna happen gramps! I ain't gonna be satisfied until we crush those jerks!" Natsu yelled defiantly.

"Natsu! That's enough out of you!" Makarov yelled as he stretched his arm out and slapped Lucy on her butt.

"And you spank me because?..." Lucy sighed.

"Master, keep your hands to yourself." Mirajane scolded and the former laughed drunkenly. He hopped off of the counter and began walking away.

"Where are you going!?" Natsu exclaimed.

"Don't get your panties in a wad! I'm going to take a leak." He answered.

"I don't get why he's being like this." Natsu said.

"Believe me, the Master is just as upset as we are. But for the sake of the guild he doesn't want to attack because the magic council forbids wars between guilds even dark guilds." Mira said.

"Regardless, now isn't the time to be relax. They might attack us again!" Naruto exclaimed.

"I agree, this probably wasn't just some random attack. Either way, if Makarov told us to wait then we have to wait." Sasuke added.

"We should attack them at night too." Natsu said to Gray who were having a conversation with themselves.

"No. We should attack them during the day so they remember our faces." Gray said.

"What do you two think you're talking about over there?" Lucy questioned angrily.

 _Bonk!_ _Bonk!_

"We're sorry..."

"It could have been a prank also. It's not so uncommon for reckless wizards to destroy something." Erza suggested as she looked over towards Natsu and Gray with death stares. The latter two cowered in fear as they held one another.

"Either way, it's safe to assume this may not be the last attack." Naruto said.

"I'll stay behind tonight at the guild." Sasuke announced.

"You will? But why?" Levy asked.

"If there's something in the guild hall that they want, it would be childs play to come back at night to take it. Especially if they think we're not using the building because it's destroyed." Sasuke answered and she nodded her head, understanding his logic.

"Everyone travel in pairs tonight. Please do not be home alone tonight for safety precautions." Mirajane announced.

Later that evening, Lucy was heading home to her apartment with Plue.

"I've heard that Phantom and Fairy Tail have had their fair share of scuffles in the past but I didn't think I'd be involved with them so soon. I hope we don't go to war..." Lucy said as the man boating in the canal called out to her telling her to be careful as he always does.

"... Phantom has a reputation for being just as crazy as Fairy Tail. I honestly thought about joining them before I met Natsu." She added as she began opening up the doors to her apartment. She entered the building and looked towards the door on her right. She looked down and saw no shoes in front of the door. Then she looked towards the door on the left and noticed there weren't any shoes there either.

"I know that Sasuke not going to be here, but Naruto's not home either? I wonder why." She walked up the stairs to the second floor and heard chatting inside.

"I really don't get it..." Lucy grumbled.

"WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS IN MY HOUSE!? GO AWAY!" Lucy shouted as she threw her suitcase right at Natsu's face.

"Mira said that we should travel and sleep in groups tonight. Remember?" Gray asked.

"Oh you're right, she did say something like that." Lucy said as she dropped her keys on her desk and sat on the bed.

"So why'd you have to hit me for?" Natsu asked holding his nose in pain.

"It's because Phantom probably knows where we all live so it's for our best interest that we stay together." Erza said.

"They know where we all live!? How could we ever be safe from them?" Lucy asked weeping anime tears.

"She did say probably didn't she." Gray commented.

"Gaaaah, we should just storm into Phantom and fight them ourselves!" Natsu said loudly in frustration.

"You know we can't do that, if we went to war with Phantom neither side would walk away cleanly." Erza said.

"If that's the case then what the hell did I spend two years training for!?" Natsu yelled.

"I'm confident that if we went to war with Phantom we would annihilate them." Gray said and Erza angrily slammed her palms on the table shaking the tea cups that were set, shocking Lucy and Happy.

"It isn't a matter of whether we can win or not!" She snapped.

"If we fight against Phantom the Magic Council will not just sit still about it! You know that fighting between guilds is forbidden even if it's against dark guilds. Even if we win, the Magic Council could very well force Fairy Tail to disband!" Erza explained. The three of them locked eyes with each other as the tension between the them rose with each passing second.

 _"So that's what she meant by neither side will walk away cleanly."_ Lucy thought.

"Everyone needs to calm down. I know we're all angry about what Phantom did, but Erza is right. It's better to just lose the building than to have to lose all of our friends." Lucy said, trying to calm everyone's nerves. Erza took a deep breath and the other two turned their heads away in indifference.

"But I have to ask. Is Phantom really that strong?" Lucy asked.

"They certainly outnumber us that's for sure. Their master is a member of the 10 wizard saints, so he's on par with Master Makarov. They also have a group of elite wizards similar to our S-Class known as the Element 4. Then they have Black Steel Gajeel who I believe is responsible for the destruction of our guild hall. He's known as the iron dragon slayer." Erza explained.

"Iron dragon slayer? I thought Natsu was only one!" Lucy expressed shock at the revelation.

"Pfff he ain't nothing to me." Natsu boasted.

"Now you understand that a struggle between our guilds will lead to lots of unnecessary strife and destruction." Erza said.

"Even so, we all know that there'd be a lot of destruction but let's be honest here." Gray said.

"You both saw Naruto and Sasuke are capable of. They could annihilate all of Phantom by themselves if they chose to. Master and all." He added.

"What are you talking about?" Lucy asked.

"Don't you remember what Sasuke said, back on Galuna?" Gray asked.

 _"There's no real way to fully measure his power. But if I had to make a guess, he could destroy the planet if he wanted to."_ Sasuke's words echoed in Lucy's ear as she came to a shocking revelation.

"Then that means..." Lucy started.

"Yes. Master Makarov isn't worried about going to war. He has no doubt, that if Naruto and Sasuke got involved in a war with Phantom, they'd be wiped off the continent. The Council would undoubtedly disband Fairy Tail for throwing off the balance of the magic world. We're just lucky that the council isn't completely aware of their true strength." Erza explained.

"But why would people as strong as they are want to be a part of Fairy Tail?" Lucy asked.

"We're awesome that's why." Natsu smiled.

"Can't argue with that." Gray smirked.

"Aye sir!" Happy cheered.

"Sasuke might be more reserved than others. But they both fit right in." Erza added.

"Speaking of Naruto and Sasuke, I know the latter is at the guild, but where's Naruto? I didn't see his shoes in front of his door." Lucy asked.

"He's not home? He was home when we came in." Gray answered looking puzzled.

"Do you know anything Natsu?" Erza asked and the accused shook his head as he could not talk due to the amount of food in his mouth.

"Did he leave a note on the door or anything?" Erza asked and Lucy denied.

"That's strange, he always lets someone know if he's going out somewhere."

 **In the Hidden Leaf Village...**

Naruto had flashed his way to the Hidden Leaf and was currently making his way towards the Hokage's office. Closing hours had already begun as the streets were starting to become pretty empty. This was good for Naruto especially because he wanted to make it there without any issues today. He's such a legend that it's impossible not to run in to a bunch of people who wanted his autograph or something. Still, he made his way to the building as quickly as possible. He made his way through the front entrance, he walked quickly to the elevator as to avoid anyone recognizing him.

 _"Normally I don't mind all the attention but now's not really the time..."_ Naruto thought as he took the elevator to the top floor.

Naruto had always found it astonishing just how much the Hidden Leaf had changed.

"Then again it has been nearly 500 years." Naruto said to himself somberly. He walked through the long white hallway until he got to a red double door with the kanji for 'fire' on it.

 _"This place doesn't even feel like a Hokage tower."_ Naruto thought as he placed two knocks on the door. A voice from the other side told him to come in and he opened the door slowly.

When he came inside, he was met with a few familiar faces as the Hokage was not alone in his office tonight. Lily, Naegi, Kirigiri, and Zoudori were all the. Zoudori was the same age as his other two teammates and slightly taller than Naegi. He has black spiky hair that was reminiscent of Minato and wore a dark green track suit with a single black stripe going down the sides. He had light skin and dark brown eyes. He wore the jacket unzipped over his plain white t-shirt and wore black shinobi sandals. His forehead protector was where the name implies and he always keeps a piece of wheat hanging from his mouth.

"Lord Naruto!" Naegi cheered as he jumped on to Naruto bringing them both to the ground.

"Woah, easy there little guy. Could you drop the 'Lord' too, it's not like I'm the Hokage or anything remember?" Naruto smiled and ruffled his hair.

"Yo." Zoudori waved and Kirigiri silently bowed her head in respect.

"What's up Naruto? What brings you here tonight?" Lili asked. Naruto finally managed to get Naegi off of him and stood up.

"I was just about to ask you guys the same thing. How come Wanda-sensei isn't here with them?" Naruto asked.

"She's off duty to pregnancy so I'm filling in as their jonin leader for now." Lily answered.

"I'm thinking about making the change permanent. That is, if you're up to it Lili." Borelle said.

"Sounds like a lot of fun, but I know how much Wanda-san loves them. So I don't want to take this responsibility from her even when she recovers." Lily smiled.

"I miss doing missions with Erza and our old team." Naegi pouted.

"Old team? Erza was a part of your team?" Naruto asked.

"She didn't tell you? I figured she would have by now." Lily said.

"Well a lot has been happening since we returned so it's not like there has been much time for stories." Naruto laughed nervously.

"Yeah... She alone got promoted to Chunin and left us behind." Kirigiri said.

"Oooh, Kirigiri-chan you sure have become more outspoken since I last saw you. Did Erza and Naegi influence you that much?" Naruto asked, sporting the grin of a prankster.

"Sure, whatever you say." Kirigiri answered in her normal monotone voice and Naruto laughed.

"You guys should come and visit Fairy Tail sometime." Naruto said.

"As much as I know you'd like to chat more, I'm certain that you didn't come here just to talk." Borelle said in a professional tone and the kids took it as a sign that they should leave.

"Hey I don't think it's too late, you guys wanna go to the Dango shop?" Naegi offered and they nodded. Once the genin were out of the room, Naruto took a seat on the couch that was in the corner of the room.

"So, what did you need to tell us?" Lili asked and Naruto held his hand out and the book they were investigating appeared in it. He tossed it to Borelle and he caught it with one hand and opened it. He opened the book to the second page and read it.

 _Two young men, one represented by darkness, the other by light. They defeated the ring leader of the beast's revival, Kaguya, the mother of all chakra._

"What is the meaning of this?" Borelle asked.

"We don't know... But Sasuke figured out that whoever wrote this book had to have been alive between the time of our disappearance and the introduction of magic." Naruto said.

"How did he figure that out?" Lily asked.

"The book has us in it, but the pages are sealed with a formula that only the Rinnegan and Tenseigan can see. Even the mangekyou sharingan can't see it." Naruto said.

"But that doesn't answer my question." Lily said.

"I was just getting to that. We found out today that the real key to unlocking the pages of by destroying the demons of the Book of Zeref." Naruto added and the siblings shared the same shocked expression.

"So you recently slayed a demon from the Book of Zeref then?" Borelle asked and Naruto nodded.

"It was the Tale of Destruction. Deliora. I'm assuming that Lullaby is what caused the first page to be revealed as well." Naruto answered.

"I see. So you and Sasuke must have come to the same conclusion." Lily said.

"Exactly. The writer of this book isn't Old Man Six Paths like we thought. It's-"

"It's an anagram. Roku Shodaim isn't a way of saying 'The First Six'. A The real author of the book is Kuro Madoshi. In other words, The Black Wizard Zeref." Borelle concluded.

Team Shadow Gear which consisted of Levy, Jet and Droy were walking down the dark streets of Magnolia towards Jet's home. Levy lived in Fairy Hills, the female dormitory but she opted out of going there for the night since boys aren't allowed there.

"You could've went home you know." Jet said.

"Yeah, we're just fine being by ourselves." Droy said.

"Are you kidding? I didn't wanna leave my team behind." Levy smiled cheerfully and the other two swooned for her.

"We'll always protect you Levy!" Jet and Droy said simultaneously.

A mysterious figure was watching Shadow Gear from a roof top. He had a menacing grin plastered on his face as he leaped from the roof behind Shadow Gear and landed with a loud thud. He rushed them with what seemed like an iron club.Unable to react quickly enough, the three of them were out cold in an instant.

"This'll get those Fairy Scum's attention."


End file.
